Newsletter #7

Dear all,

September has been a great month with an incredible number of positive initiatives in using materials smarter, less and longer whether thanks to high end complex AI simulation (to identify a new frontier for reengineering electrical batteries, or to confirm the hardest material in the universe), or thanks to proper observation and use of wastes (to develop bio packaging, turn plastic wastes into hydrogen or build roads with plastic wastes) and also thanks to targeted cooperation between Industry and Academia/Start Ups (Daimler funding electrical buses' start up in California, Volkswagen codeveloping a new ALD technique with Stanford in order to use less platinum for the same fuel cell efficiency or on going projects to reduce the usage of rare earth for electric motors at Fraunhofer or to commercialize MOF water harvesting at Berkeley).


And we wish to give a special focus to one paper published by Forbes on September 27th
that highlights the ramping up of 3D Metal mass production at Desktop Metal that was founded in… 2015

Read

As always, we wish you a great reading and we will welcome any feedback. 

Victoire de Margerie & Philippe Varin

CRITICAL RESOURCES

Electrive.com, September 3rd
Dysprosium and Neodymium could be reduced to one fifth of their current usage in electric motors thanks to Fraunhofer research

Business Times, September 19th
New milestone for electrical buses in California 

Green Car Congress, September 27th
Less platinum for same fuel cell efficiency thanks to new Atomic Layer Deposition technique at Stanford

MATERIALS SCIENCES

Plastics Today, August 31st
Targeted drug delivery thanks to a new class of nano plastics

California, September 19th
Metal Organic Frameworks (MOF) as a scalable process for water harvesting

DESIGN & DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Stanford News, August 17th
Machine learning helps understand new properties of lithium iron phosphate and opens path to improved design of ion lithium batteries

Mc Gill News, September 18th
Hardest material in the Universe confirmed thanks to 2 M hours computer simulation

SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES

Materials World, September 1st
A mix of crab shells and tree fibers as an alternative to PET for food packaging at Georgia Institute of Technology

Chemistry World, September 5th
Photo reforming plastic waste into hydrogen at Universities of Swansea and Cambridge

The Guardian, September 13th
Dutch cycle path entirely made of plastic waste