The researchers of the University of Camerino, Italy, by developing an innovative method combining hydrometallurgy and electrochemical deposition, have taken a big step towards more efficie recovery of silver from used solar cells. This method, which is accompanied by an environmeally friendly method, has been able to achieve a significa silver recovery rate of 98.7%.
According to the scieific news departme of Tekna Technology Media, commercial solar cells as one of the importa sources of clean energy coain significa amous of valuable metals such as aluminum, steel, copper, zinc and silver, while the recovery of aluminum and steel as structural compones of cells is relatively simple. The recovery of precious metals such as copper and silver brings more technical challenges due to their presence in electrical circuits.
With the increasing use of solar energy and increasing the useful life of solar panels, the problem of waste manageme of this technology has become one of the main concerns. On the other hand, the limitation of mineral resources and the destructive effects of traditional metal extraction methods on the environme double the importance of recovering metals from electronic waste. has done
Researchers in this research have succeeded in effectively separating silver from other metals in solar cells by using a special chemical compound. In this method, persulfate activated with ammonia is used as an oxidizing age, which leads to the formation of copper oxide as a layer. It is protected and preveed from dissolving by optimizing operational parameters such as conceration of chemicals, reaction time and temperature, researchers have been able to achieve high efficiency in silver separation.
In the coinuation of this research, researchers have succeeded in recovering silver with very high purity from a solution coaining copper ions by using the electro-deposition oxidation substitution method (EDRR). It provides nearly one hundred perce.
The developme of this innovative method not only leads to more efficie recovery of valuable metals from solar cells, but it can also help reduce the pressure on mineral resources and reduce environmeal pollution. Considering the increasing importance of renewable energy and the limitation of natural resources, this achieveme can be an importa step towards developme of circular economy and environmeal sustainability.
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