Cobalt

The ingenuity of bacteria keeps surprising scientists. The latest example is a species called Geobacter sulfurreducens, which has now been found to survive exposure to toxic cobalt by building a metal “suit” like a tiny little Iron Man.

In an effort to assist the shift away from the rare and expensive metal cobalt, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed an alternative nickel-based battery architecture, which they say ticks a few important boxes.

A new breakthrough could boost the eco-credentials of an environmentally friendly form of lithium battery even further, by restoring it to its original condition once it is spent using just a fraction of the energy of current approaches.

A new battery design from the University of Texas at Austin may help address some issues of current lithium batteries, with the researchers demonstrating a new type of architecture that is entirely free of cobalt.

Scientists from the University of Southern Denmark have created a substance that is able to absorb and store oxygen in such high concentrations that just one bucketful is enough to remove all of the oxygen in a room. The stored oxygen is able to be released in a controlled manner when it is needed.