This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American A while ago, I wrote a couple of posts ...

The recovery of rare earth elements using ionic liquids has emerged as a sustainable alternative to conventional hydrometallurgical processes. Ionic liquids are salts that remain liquid at moderate ...

Rare-earth elements are in many everyday products, such as smart phones, LED lights and batteries. However, only a few locations have large enough deposits worth mining, resulting in global supply ...