Chelators for Radioligand Therapy
Figure 1. Structure of [2.2.2] Cryptand encapsulating a potassium cation (purple) as determined by X-ray crystallography. Credit: M stone, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons; data from Alberto et al., JACS 2001. MacroLig® 404 (Cryptand 2.2.2) is a macrocycle widely used in the synthesis of diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, such as those utilizing Fluorine-18 (18F). Building on decades...Read More→
Separating and Refining Iridium and Ruthenium: How Molecular Recognition Technology® (MRT™) Solves the Hardest Problem in PGM Refining
Two Scarce Metals the Energy Transition Depends On Iridium (Ir) and ruthenium (Ru) are the two least abundant members of the platinum group metals (PGMs), a classification defined by scarcity. Roughly 7.5 tonnes of Ir are mined each year, compared with about 200 tonnes of platinum, and South Africa accounts for 88% of that Ir...Read More→
Power in Chemistry, Simplicity in Engineering: Molecular Recognition Technology® (MRT™) Offers Maximum Recovery, Maximum Purity and Minimal Waste
The World’s Critical Minerals Are Getting Harder to Reach and Process Every year, the critical minerals that power modern life become harder to extract and purify. Primary ore grades decline. Mines dig deeper. More rock must be processed for less metal. Chemically complex brines and tailings must be treated to pull out small amounts of...Read More→
From Cu-64 to Pb-203: Solving the Purification Challenge in Medical Radioisotopes
From Cu-64 to Pb-203: Solving the Purification Challenge in Medical Radioisotopes Nuclear medicine uses radioactive isotopes to diagnose and treat disease, and it is routine at hospitals and health care facilities worldwide, spanning everything from positron emission tomography (PET) scans that diagnose Alzheimer’s disease to radiopharmaceuticals that treat cancer [1]. On the diagnostic side, the...Read More→
Product, Not Intermediate: How Direct Lithium to Product® (DLP™) Outperforms Evaporation Ponds and DLE
The Race for Lithium Is Really a Race for Purity Global deployment of lithium-ion batteries in 2025 was six times what it was in 2020, and electric vehicles now account for roughly one in four new cars sold worldwide [1]. Battery chemistries are diverging. Lithium iron phosphate is gaining share, sodium-ion is emerging, and solid-state...Read More→
Rhenium: The Critical Metal at the White-Hot Heart of the Jet Engine
Deep inside the turbine of a modern jet engine, in the first stage just behind the combustor, gas temperatures can exceed 1,650 °C which is hotter than the melting point of the very nickel the engine is built from [5]. Spinning in that inferno are turbine blades, each one cast as a single, unbroken metallic...Read More→
Responsible by Design: How IBC follows Green Engineering & Green Chemistry Principles
How Irresponsible Mining Can Lead to Disaster On a late-November day in 2016, a flock of snow geese migrating south set down to rest on a lake in Butte, Montana. From a distance the water looked inviting; a still, emerald-green expanse ringed by terraced rock. Within days, several thousand of the birds were dead. By...Read More→
Recycling Iridium and Other PGMs with MRT™: Using Critical Minerals to Help Enable the Hydrogen Energy Economy in South Africa
A continent of extreme geological wealth, Africa contains some 30 percent of the world’s critical mineral reserves, 40 percent of the world’s gold and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum. The largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium in the world are in Africa [1]. Although African nations bear the environmental and...Read More→
Lithium Recycling Challenges and How Direct Lithium to Product® (DLP™) Improves Lithium Economics
Lithium Solves the Puzzle of Energy Storage Lithium is the foundation of the modern energy transition. Its unique electrochemical properties, notably the highest electric potential of any metal (3.7 eV) combined with the lowest atomic weight, make it irreplaceable in high-energy-density rechargeable batteries. Every electric vehicle, every grid battery, and every consumer device powered by...Read More→
MRT™ Flowsheets for Ac-225: Improving Purity, Recovery and Supply Reliability
The Growing Demand for Ac-225 in Targeted Alpha Therapy Cancer researchers at leading institutions worldwide are investigating one of the rarest and most promising substances in modern medicine. Actinium-225 (Ac-225), a highly radioactive isotope used in targeted alpha therapy (TAT), has demonstrated significant therapeutic potential, but clinical development and commercialization remain constrained by limited global...Read More→