Issue 4, 2015

Magnetic nanohydrometallurgy: a nanotechnological approach to elemental sustainability

Abstract

Magnetic nanohydrometallurgy (MNHM), although yet in a very incipient stage, is opening new and exciting perspectives in conventional hydrometallurgy, thus aggregating nanotechnology to the mineral area. MNHM is based on the same principles of coordination chemistry successfully employed in modern extractive hydrometallurgy processes; however, it uses specially designed superparamagnetic nanoparticles for capturing, transporting, confining and processing metal ions with the aid of an external magnet. The working nanoparticles are completely recovered after the electrodeposition process, sustaining a cyclic process which can be automated, without using organic solvents and intensive chemical processing, as is the case of current extractive hydrometallurgy and electrowinning technology. At the laboratory scale, the entire procedure can be performed in the same reactor, fulfilling, in addition to the processing and recovery facilities, the most important requisites of green chemistry.

Graphical abstract: Magnetic nanohydrometallurgy: a nanotechnological approach to elemental sustainability

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
12 Gen. 2015
Accepted
12 Cʼhwe. 2015
First published
12 Cʼhwe. 2015

Green Chem., 2015,17, 2027-2041

Author version available

Magnetic nanohydrometallurgy: a nanotechnological approach to elemental sustainability

H. E. Toma, Green Chem., 2015, 17, 2027 DOI: 10.1039/C5GC00066A

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