US Patent Issued to Iowa State University Research Foundation on May 12 for "Rare earth laser-assisted metal production and separation" (American, Indian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,624,416, issued on May 12, was assigned to Iowa State University Research Foundation Inc. (Ames, Iowa).

"Rare earth laser-assisted metal production and separation" was invented by Cajetan Ikenna Nlebedim (Ames, Iowa), Abhishek Sarkar (Kanpur, India), Pranav Shrotriya (Ames, Iowa), Denis Prodius (Ames, Iowa), Ho-won Noh (Ames, Iowa) and Thomas Lograsso (Ames, Iowa).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A compound or complex containing a rare earth element is impinged with a pulsed laser that is so controlled as to photochemically reduce and obtain a rare earth metal (REM). A mixture of REM salts can be impinged using laser light tuned to selective...