The need to close the loop on rare earth metals and a bigger role for the recycling industry in sourcing these key elements have been highlighted by the coronavirus crisis, the E-waste World conference has been told. And it provides real opportunities for recyclers.

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy selected 13 projects to develop conceptual designs for commercially viable technologies for extracting rare earth elements (REEs) from coal sources and coal by-products. Each project will receive funding of up to $150,000 from the DOE. The conceptual design will include the system configuration, equipment characteristics, performance characteristics, and associated costs for systems that produce at least 1-3 metric tons per day of mixed rare earth oxides or rare earth salts and other critical minerals in some designs.

Analysis of latest tungsten market from Chinatungsten Online

The ferro tungsten and tungsten powder prices rise slightly in early December boosted by high production cost and tightening availability of raw materials with the approaching of Chinese New Year. 

Rare earth market quotation in China: neodymium oxide, praseodymium neodymium oxide and metal prices edge lower on December 10, 2020 after a previous sharp increase due to oversupply. Now most product prices are in a relatively high level. 

Molybdenum market quotation in China: sodium molybdate, ammonium molybdate and ammonium heptamolvbdate prices remain stable on December 10, 2020. Although steel tenders have become active recently, it is difficult for domestic market to increase in trading activity. Most traders take a watchful stance. 

Analysis of latest tungsten market from Chinatungsten Online

The ferro tungsten and ammonium metatungstate (APT) prices in China are in the upward trend thanks to the rise of new guide prices for the first half of December, strengthening market confidence. 

Rare earth market quotation in China: the DyFe, terbium oxide and dysprosium oxide prices continue to rise on December 9, 2020 with the impact of limited import and the development of emerging markets. 

Molybdenum market quotation in China: ferro molybdenum, molybdenum concentrate and molybdenum oxide prices increase slightly on December 9, 2020. Now most market participants have good expect for the outlook.

By incorporating four kinds of tungsten-based polyoxometallate (POM) clusters into the synthetic system of MoO₃ during the nucleation step, the Tsinghua research team successfully prepared four kinds of super-flexible hybrid sub-nanobelt superstructures (HSNSs). When the size of nanomaterials reduces to the sub-1 nm scale, benefiting from size-induced mechanical flexibility and nearly 100% exposure of surface atoms, some new physical and chemical phenomena emerge, such as flexibility and polymer-like rheology.

2D materials such as few-layer MoS₂ and WS₂ have raise concerns due to their unique atomic thickness layered structure and photoelectric properties. As they have visible light bandgap characteristics that are not available in the earliest discovered two-dimensional material-graphene, they are important for the development of future optoelectronic devices.