By Texas A&m University System Staff on Thursday, July 30, 2026 Backed by a $1 million U.S. Department of Energy award, the project aims to create a more efficient, sustainable way to capture a critical battery mineral and strengthen the domestic clean energy supply chain.

By Taylor Northcut, Texas A&M University College of Engineering Researchers at Texas A&M University are developing tiny, fish-like swimming nanorobots designed to recover lithium from seawater, a potential new approach to strengthening the domestic supply of a critical mineral used in batteries and energy storage technologies.

Credit: Getty Images July 29, 2026A Texas A&M University research team is developing a new approach to lithium recovery using tiny, fish-like swimming nanorobots that capture lithium ions from seawater.