Earth Day 2026: The latest sustainability advancements from UChicago PME
As we celebrate Earth Day 2026, the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) continues to redefine the boundaries of what is possible in sustainability research and technology.
From the batteries powering our transit to the water in our taps, the UChicago PME’s Institute for Materials and Sustainability is delivering the scalable, high-impact solutions necessary for a truly sustainable future.
Read about a few of the most recent innovative advancements in materials and sustainability from UChicago PME researchers, below.
Tiny sensors rapidly detect “forever chemicals” in water
They linger in our water, our blood, and the environment—"forever chemicals” that are notoriously difficult to detect.
But researchers at UChicago PME and Argonne National Laboratory, including Prof. Junhong Chen, have collaborated to develop a novel method to detect miniscule levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water. The method, which they plan to share via a portable, handheld device, uses unique probes to quantify levels of PFAS “forever chemicals,” some of which are toxic to humans.
The technology, described in the journal Nature Water, can detect PFAS present at 250 parts per quadrillion (ppq) – like one grain of sand in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. That gives the test utility in monitoring drinking water for two of the most toxic PFAS—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)—for which the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed limits of 4 parts per trillion.
All-solid-state batteries are safe, powerful ways to power EVs and electronics and store electricity from the energy grid, but the lithium used to build them is rare, expensive and can be environmentally devastating to extract.
Sodium is an inexpensive, plentiful, less-destructive alternative, but the all-solid-state batteries they create currently don’t work as well at room temperature.
A paper from Prof. Y. Shirley Meng’s lab, published in Joule, helps rectify that problem. Their research raises the benchmark for sodium-based all-solid-state batteries, demonstrating thick cathodes that retain performance at room temperature down to subzero conditions.
Predictive “mismatch” leads to carbon capture breakthrough
When experimental results don’t match scientists’ predictions, it’s usually assumed the predictions were wrong. But new research into materials that pull carbon dioxide directly from the air shows how such mismatches can instead be powerful clues, leading to discoveries that reshape how future materials are designed.
Innovation turns building vents into carbon-capture devices
A nanofiber air filter developed by UChicago PME could turn existing building ventilation into carbon-capture devices while cutting homeowners’ energy costs.
In a paper published in Science Advances, researchers from the lab of UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Po-Chun Hsu developed a distributed carbon nanofiber direct air capture (DAC) filter that could potentially turn every home, office, school or other building into a small carbon-capture system working toward the global problem of airborne CO2.
A life-cycle analysis shows that – even after factoring extra CO2 released by everything from manufacture and transportation to maintenance and disposal – the new filter is 92.1% efficient in removing carbon dioxide from the air.
Computational tool predicts materials for new energy economy
The clean energy transition requires new means to transport energy that are less reliant on burning fossil fuels. This requires new materials to catalyze reactions to store and extract energy from chemical energy carriers without combustion.
One promising set of materials to create these catalysts is metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), molecular structures made of metal ions and organic linkers. Scientists and engineers at UChicago PME and the Department of Chemistry have developed a new computational tool that predicts which MOFs will be most stable for a given need.
Created by PhD student Jianming Mao and Prof. Andrew Ferguson, the tool predicted a new iron-sulfur MOF that was then synthesized by postdoctoral researcher Ningxin Jiang and Prof. John Anderson, and characterized by scientists at Stony Brook University.
Researchers combine carbon dioxide capture and conversion into one system
Every year, power plants and factories release billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. Methods exist to capture that CO₂ using chemical solutions and, separately, to convert pure CO₂ into useful fuels and chemicals. But doing both steps at once, in a cost-efficient and scalable way, has been difficult.
Now, researchers at UChicago PME and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, including senior author and Asst. Prof. Chibueze Amanchukwu, have developed a system that can simultaneously capture and convert CO₂. The approach, they reported in Nature Energy, offers a more efficient and potentially lower-cost approach than carrying out each step separately.
By swapping the water usually used in carbon capture and conversion systems for a different solvent, the team was able to capture CO₂ more efficiently and convert it into carbon monoxide, an industrially relevant building block for the chemical industry used to make a wide range of fuels and chemicals today. They also turned to zinc, rather than the usual silver, to catalyze the conversion reaction, bringing costs for the process down further.