Mumbai, March 21: Trying to find out another way of metal smelting? Then this a new and better way found out by researchers of metal smelting. In the quest for a more efficient liquid battery, MIT researchers have been able to discover a new and better method for metal smelting, one not as environmentally taxing as current methods.
MIT researchers discover a smelting process that could separate nearly pure transition metals from their ores, without the harmful byproducts of typical smelting.
In their study, the researchers were fiddling with the electrochemistry of liquid batteries, looking at placing a second electrolyte between the positive and negative electrodes.
When they powered up this setup, instead of charging the battery, electrolysis occurred, purifying the antimony sulfide being used. The addition of a good ionic conductor on top of the antimony sulfide allowed electrolysis, creating a pool of 99.9% pure antimony.
While antimony was the metal “smelted,” the researchers predict other metals, like copper, could undergo the same process with much less environmental cost than established methods.