With increasing consumerism depleting finite resources and producing growing quantities of waste, the need for a shift to sustainable, circular products is urgent. Through ReMade@ARI (REcyclable MAterials Development at Analytical Research Infrastructures), more than 50 European research infrastructures, including MAX IV, have formed a consortium to support advanced materials research.
The value of toxic waste for an inclusive circular economy
What if the toxic metalloid arsenic extracted from water treatment processes could be upcycled for economic use? What if this upcycling could benefit marginalized communities most affected by toxic pollution? The questions today are not what if, but when, thanks to seminal work recently reported in Science Advances on commodifying the critical raw material arsenic from groundwater. A novel chemical method developed with measurements from MAX IV’s Balder beamline lays the path to produce amorphous metallic arsenic As(0), valuable in alloys and clean energy systems such as batteries and high-speed electronics, namely semiconductors.
Nanoscience for clean water at ForMAX supported by ReMade@ARI
Alejandro Cortés Villena and Alessandro Ciccone from Institute of Molecular Science in Valencia are using the ForMAX beamline as part of their research supported by ReMade@ARI, a collaboration project focusing on Circular Economy. They are studying carbon-based nanomaterials that are going to be used for enabling cleaning of contaminants in water with the help of sunlight through photocatalysis.
ReMade@ARI Call for Proposals
Are you motivated to develop materials for a circular economy? Do you have an innovative scientific idea, potentially even with an industrial impact? The ReMade project is committed to supporting the development of innovative, sustainable materials by providing scientists with analytical tools to explore the properties and structure of materials right down to atomic resolution.