貴金属のアノード電析を用いた新規リサイクル手法

抄録

Recycling of precious metals is becoming increasingly important as our living standards improve and technologies advance. In most cases, recycling processes of precious metals involve ionization steps to dissolve them in some solvents. Since precious metals are highly chemically stable (i.e. their ionization energies are large), a combination of a strong complexing agent and an oxidizing agent is required to dissolve them in the solutions. Furthermore, scraps contain many elements. The recycling processes to separate and purify precious metals consist of many complicated steps, and thus, these processes are time consuming and generate large amounts of hazardous waste liquid and gases. Therefore, a novel process to recover precious metals from scraps, which is simple and generates small amount of hazardous waste liquid, is desired. Recently, we have developed a new process to recycle precious metals utilizing anodic electrochemical deposition from anionic ions of precious metals dissolved in a molten salt electrolyte. This new process is simple and does not generate harmful waste; thus, it is efficient and environmentally-sound. This article introduces the newly developed recycling process utilizing anodic deposition, with its background, related previous research, and future prospects.