Coal waste11 Feb 2022 07:22
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Rare earth elements for smartphones can be extracted from coal waste
Recycling rare earth elements from the ash left over from coal burning is cheaper, easier and more environmentally friendly than digging them out of mines
ENVIRONMENT
February 9, 2022 19:00
By Alice Klein
A microscope image of tiny glass spheres in coal fly ash that contain rare earth elements
Rare earth elements that are vital to smartphones and electric vehicles can now be extracted from coal waste instead of being dug out of the ground.
Neodymium, europium, terbium and other rare earth metals that were once barely heard of are now commonplace in phone touchscreens, electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and other modern technologies due to their useful magnetic and electronic properties. Mining them is expensive and inefficient, since large areas of land must be dug up to extract small amounts.
James Tour at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and his colleagues have come up with a way to recycle these metals from fly ash, a fine black powder that is left over when coal is burned in power plants.
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