Urban mining by flash Joule heating

Deng, Bing; Luong, Duy Xuan; Wang, Zhe; Kittrell, Carter; McHugh, Emily A.; Tour, James M.

doi:10.1038/s41467-021-26038-9

Urban mining by flash Joule heating

Journal Article · Mon Oct 04 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26038-9· OSTI ID:1823500

; Luong, Duy Xuan; ; Kittrell, Carter; McHugh, Emily A.;

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.

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Research Organization:: Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: FE0031794

OSTI ID:: 1823500

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1881336

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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