Digging out the real gold and silver from discarded mobile phones

2023-07-06

Research has shown that a discarded smartphone contains various valuable materials, with gold content of about 0.015%, silver content of about 0.3%, copper content of about 20-25%, renewable material content of about 40-50%, and platinum, aluminum, palladium, among others. According to a recent report on the website of the Spanish newspaper Abesai, "one ton of smartphones can extract 235 grams of gold and one kilogram of silver," and abandoned smartphones are rich in mineral resources. The current speed of electronic product updates is accelerating, especially for smartphones with wide application scenarios in daily life. At the same time, the number of discarded smartphones is also constantly increasing, and the value of this "urban mine" is being seen. Many people are not familiar with how to properly dispose of discarded smartphones. In fact, if discarded smartphones are not properly disposed of, on the one hand, they will cause pollution and harm to the environment, and on the other hand, they will also waste many valuable recyclable resources. Research has shown that a discarded smartphone contains various valuable materials with recycling value, including gold content of about 0.015%, silver content of about 0.3%, copper content of about 20-25%, renewable material content of about 40-50%, and platinum, aluminum, palladium, etc. Professor Du Huanzheng, director of the Institute of Ecological Civilization and Circular Economy of Tongji University, told reporters that in China, one ton of waste smart phones can contain 280 grams of gold and 2000 grams of silver, which are 60 times and 13 times of the original mine respectively, and can be called an "urban mine". The value of metal in one ton of waste smart phones can reach 23000 dollars. Many high-value metals can be recycled from discarded smartphones, at least to extract high-value elements such as gold, silver, and copper, the vast majority of which come from the circuit boards of mobile phones. In addition, a large number of chips are distributed on the circuit board, containing the non-metallic element silicon. After processing, the crystal silicon obtained through purification can ultimately be used to produce monocrystalline silicon for semiconductor components. The vast majority of smartphones nowadays use lithium batteries, which contain a lot of recyclable metal elements. Most lithium batteries use cobalt oxide as the positive electrode and graphite as the negative electrode, and the recycling value of cobalt in batteries can reach hundreds of millions of yuan nationwide every year, "said Du Huanzheng. In addition, there are rare earth elements such as lanthanum that make the display effect of mobile phone screens more vivid, as well as ultra strong magnetic rare earth elements such as neodymium used in speakers and front sensors. If these rare and precious metals can be fully recycled and utilized, they can also alleviate the resource pressure brought by the large-scale production of smartphones on rare and precious metals. Scrap smartphones belong to a type of discarded electrical and electronic products, which also have both environmental risk and resource value attributes. While reducing their environmental risk attributes, maximizing their value is the correct way to complete the recycling and treatment of waste smartphones. "Zhang Heran, Secretary General of the Electronic Product Recycling Branch of the China Material Recycling Association, said that currently, There are still a large number of discarded smartphones in China that are being improperly recycled and dismantled. Some valuable materials are not fully utilized due to technological limitations, which not only wastes resources but also poses a threat to the environment

Edit:XiaoWanNing    Responsible editor:YingLing

Source:Science and Technology Daily

Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email:lwxsd@liaowanghn.com

Return to list

Recommended Reading Change it

Links

Submission mailbox:lwxsd@liaowanghn.com Tel:020-817896455

粤ICP备19140089号 Copyright © 2019 by www.lwxsd.com.all rights reserved

>