The production of rare earth metals is a global $4 billion annual market that continues to grow as new uses are developed. Current acid based separation and purification of rare earth metals have a detrimental environmental impact. Now, new technology to extract and purify rare earth metals, developed and patented from the laboratory of Dr. Nien-Hwa Linda Wang, the Maxine Spencer Nichols Professor of Chemical Engineering, can separate rare earth metals without the environmental effects of conventional acid based methods with high yield and purity.

Two Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate students placed second for their poster presentation at the Heath and Disease: Science, Technology, Culture, and Policy Research Symposium.

A Purdue Engineering and Purdue Foundry-affiliated startup is one of five Indiana businesses to receive funding from the second regional Elevate Ventures' Elevate Nexus Pitch Competitions Feb. 25-27. Elevate Ventures awarded a total of $680,000 in preseed and seed funding.

Several Davidson School of Chemical Engineering graduate students were recently honored for their excellence in research, teaching, and service in 2019-2020. Awards were presented by Purdue University, the College of Engineering, and the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering.

Soft and flexible materials called halide perovskites could make solar cells more efficient at significantly less cost, but they are too unstable to use. A Purdue University-led research team, including Davidson School of Chemical Engineering faculty Dr. Letian Dou and Dr. Brett Savoie, has found a way to make halide perovskites stable enough by inhibiting the ion movement that makes them rapidly degrade, unlocking their use for solar panels as well as electronic devices. The results were published in the journal Nature on Wednesday (April 29).