We have studied the origin of excess noise in superconducting transition-edge sensors (TES) with several different detector designs. We show that most of the observed noise and complex impedance features can be explained by a thermal model consisting of three bodies. We suggest that one of the thermal blocks and the corresponding thermal fluctuation noise arises due to the high-frequency thermal decoupling of the normal and superconducting phase regions inside the TES film. Our results are also consistent with the prediction that in thin bilayer proximitized superconductors, the jump in heat capacity at the critical temperature is smaller than the universal BCS theory result.

Selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printing is used to fabricate highly macroporous ion scavenger filters for recovery of Pd and Pt from electronic waste. The scavengers are printed by using a mixture of polypropylene with 10 wt% of type‐1 anion exchange resin. Porosities and the flow‐through properties of the filters are controlled by adjusting the SLS printing parameters. The cylinder‐shaped filters are used in selective recovery of Pd and Pt from acidic leachate of electronic waste simply by passing the solution through the object. Under such conditions, the scavenger filters are able to capture Pd and Pt as anionic complexes with high efficiency from a solution containing mixture of different metal ions. By using the Pd/Pt scavenger together with previously reported, highly selective nylon‐based Au scavenger, precious metals, i.e., Au, Pd, and Pt could all be recovered from the electronic waste leachate in a single flow‐through process. One of the main advantages of the printed scavengers is that all recovered metals can be easily extracted from the filters as separate fractions by using aqueous solutions of thiourea or diluted nitric acid. After removal of the captured metals, the scavengers are reusable without significant loss of their ion‐capturing performance.

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In order to investigate the origin of the until now unaccounted excess noise and to minimize the uncontrollable phenomena at the transition in X-ray microcalorimeters we have developed superconducting transition-edge sensors into an edgeless geometry, the so-called Corbino disk (CorTES), with superconducting contacts in the centre and at the outer perimeter. The measured rms current noise and its spectral density can be modeled as resistance noise resulting from fluctuations near the equilibrium superconductor-normal metal boundary.