How Can We Improve E-Waste Recycling for Smartphones?

[Evanish]

I was reading an article about smart phones. Here is a quote from it..

"If you are wondering what chemistry has to do with smartphones, just look at the periodic table. Of the 83 stable (nonradioactive) elements, at least 70 of them can be found in smartphones! That’s 84% of all of the stable elements."
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/...ast-issues/archive-2014-2015/smartphones.html

I was wondering how difficult it would be to separate all 70 of the elements from each other for later reuse. I've done some reading about recycling before and it seems like only some (e.g. gold, copper) elements get recycled by current process. I would like to know more about the challenges of E-waste recycling, the current state of the industry and what the future might hold. Thanks.

 

[ISamson]

I was reading an article about smart phones. Here is a quote from it..

"If you are wondering what chemistry has to do with smartphones, just look at the periodic table. Of the 83 stable (nonradioactive) elements, at least 70 of them can be found in smartphones! That’s 84% of all of the stable elements."
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/...ast-issues/archive-2014-2015/smartphones.html

I was wondering how difficult it would be to separate all 70 of the elements from each other for later reuse. I've done some reading about recycling before and it seems like only some (e.g. gold, copper) elements get recycled by current process. I would like to know more about the challenges of E-waste recycling, the current state of the industry and what the future might hold. Thanks.

It might be chemically and scientifically possible to separate the elements into more manageable and useful compounds, materials or atoms. This is one example of chemical pollution and problems of the future. Very debatable topic.

It could be possible to separate the atoms by looking at how different molecules change state at different temperatures and "capture" them as they evaporate.
Your question is very interesting.

 

[Borek]

Doable - yes. Economically viable - that's where things get difficult.

Many of the elements used are way too cheap to be worth recycling. Even those rare and expensive can be present in such a minute quantities (say, dopants in semiconductors are used in ppb amounts, that means that the phone may contain less than nanograms of them) that trying top recycle them is way too expensive.

 

[Borek]

It could be possible to separate the atoms by looking at how different molecules change state at different temperatures and "capture" them as they evaporate.

Really no need to reinvent the wheel, there are many methods of separating substances, this is a huge area of research in chemical engineering, one that is several hundred years old.

What you describe sounds more or less like separation by sublimation, but - just to see how many possibilities there are - take a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_process

 

[ISamson]

Really no need to reinvent the wheel, there are many methods of separating substances, this is a huge area of research in chemical engineering, one that is several hundred years old.

What you describe sounds more or less like separation by sublimation, but - just to see how many possibilities there are - take a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_process

Yes, as you said it is a very broad area of research in chemistry. There are really many different techniques of separation!

 

[Rive]

I would like to know more about the challenges of E-waste recycling

The most challenging part is to keep the process cheap enough, while the remaining stuff is still harmless enough.

To remove the few elements which worth reprocessing (by the actual prices for raw materials), it usually takes quite a chemistry, and the waste-of-waste still requires further processing afterward before it can be deposited. No wonder that electronic waste is considered as a good material to be exported to countries with less strict rules for electronic waste processing.

So, actually the most challenging part is not closely related to chemistry. The challenge is to keep the dirt at home.

 

[Evanish]

Doable - yes. Economically viable - that's where things get difficult.

Many of the elements used are way too cheap to be worth recycling. Even those rare and expensive can be present in such a minute quantities (say, dopants in semiconductors are used in ppb amounts, that means that the phone may contain less than nanograms of them) that trying top recycle them is way too expensive.

I've thought about this issue. I wonder if government intervention might be appropriate for this problem. At least for some of the more rare elements. The government can buy these elements up until they reach some set price. This will encourage recycling because the price will be higher and stable. It will also lead the government have a strategic reserve of these materials that they can sell to industries at a set price. Plus, since the materials are rare storage shouldn't be a big problem. Of course there are usually issues with government involvement in markets, but for such and important issue it seem like it might be warranted anyways.