Critical elements and minerals are key materials with high risk of supply disruption that are essential to modern technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, microelectronics, biomedical imaging, energy-efficient lighting, and so on. These elements, especially lithium (Li), cobalt (Co), rare earth elements (REE), and platinum group elements (PGE), have unique electronic, magnetic, and chemical properties that are difficult to replace. Therefore, a sustained, multidisciplinary effort is urgently needed by integrating scientific research and engineering innovation to develop diverse solutions across the critical materials lifecycle, including separation, materials manufacturing, elemental substitution, and end-of-life recycling. This symposium highlights recent research efforts on separation, substituting, recycling, and materials-efficient manufacturing of critical elements and materials by bridging expertise on theoretical modeling/simulation, materials synthesis, functional measurement/control, and advanced characterizations. The symposium will bring together a diverse group of researchers, both from the materials community and other different communities to discuss the challenges and solutions for a circular economy of critical elements and minerals.

absorption diffusion electrical properties electronic structure ion-solid interactions reactivity surface chemistry