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April 2026
New Material Sprouts From Fast-Growing Crop
A startup, farmers, and NLR are growing a more durable, recyclable epoxy for snowboards, energy infrastructure, and more.
The Fast Lane: 3 Ways To Get More Critical Minerals, Now
Companies need critical minerals for electronics, medical equipment, crops, and more. These three techniques (and others) could make some easier to get.
March 2026
Researchers Use Light To Tune Electronic Properties in Ultrathin Materials
NLR researchers developed a scalable, light-based method that achieves the spatial precision and stability needed for commercial applications in multilogic devices, inverters, and optoelectronic devices.
September 2025
Built for Brilliance: Zintl-Phase Quantum Dots Illuminate New Opportunities for Optoelectronics
NREL-synthesized BaCd₂P₂ quantum dots demonstrate promising performance with Earth-abundant materials.
August 2025
Breaking Rules but Not Waves: Plasmons in Correlated Materials
Researchers discovered that charge waves called plasmons can survive—and even thrive—in a “bad” metal, challenging long-held beliefs about conductivity and coherence in quantum materials.
AI Could Help Bridge Valley of Death for New Materials
More than 50 experts gathered at NREL to consider how incorporating AI into materials synthesis, characterization, and modeling could unlock new insights and speed new technologies to market.
Researchers Observe Evidence of Hyperbolic Exciton Polaritons
Promising new pathways for manipulating excitons and light can benefit optoelectronics.
Researchers Surf Magnon Wave To Control Particles in Next-Gen Electronics
A new study demonstrates how magnons, a type of wave found in magnetic systems, can manipulate interactions between excitons—uncharged “quasiparticles” that carry energy.
July 2025
Collaboration Between NREL and CubicPV Pushes Perovskite Minimodule Performance to New Heights
A collaborative effort between NREL and CubicPV has yielded a perovskite minimodule that belongs in the record books.
Collaboration Reveals How Light Unlocks Chemistry of Nickel Catalyst
A team of scientists across several national laboratories has unraveled how light and a previously unknown form of certain nickel-based catalysts together unlock and preserve reactivity.
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Last Updated May 5, 2025