Urban mining by flash Joule heating

Bing Deng, Duy Xuan Luong, Zhe Wang, Carter Kittrell, Emily A. McHugh and James M. Tour ()
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Bing Deng: Rice University
Duy Xuan Luong: Rice University
Zhe Wang: Rice University
Carter Kittrell: Rice University
Emily A. McHugh: Rice University
James M. Tour: Rice University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Precious metal recovery from electronic waste, termed urban mining, is important for a circular economy. Present methods for urban mining, mainly smelting and leaching, suffer from lengthy purification processes and negative environmental impacts. Here, a solvent-free and sustainable process by flash Joule heating is disclosed to recover precious metals and remove hazardous heavy metals in electronic waste within one second. The sample temperature ramps to ~3400 K in milliseconds by the ultrafast electrical thermal process. Such a high temperature enables the evaporative separation of precious metals from the supporting matrices, with the recovery yields >80% for Rh, Pd, Ag, and >60% for Au. The heavy metals in electronic waste, some of which are highly toxic including Cr, As, Cd, Hg, and Pb, are also removed, leaving a final waste with minimal metal content, acceptable even for agriculture soil levels. Urban mining by flash Joule heating would be 80× to 500× less energy consumptive than using traditional smelting furnaces for metal-component recovery and more environmentally friendly.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-26038-9

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26038-9

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