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ACS Meeting News: Powerful organic-based systems dissolve noble metals under mild conditions
Stephen K. Ritter
Gary Meek
Lin holds a bottle of organic aqua regia containing dissolved gold from a silicon wafer; recovered gold from the solution is visible on the computer screen.
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Topics Covered
aqua regia, gold, recycling, etchl
Latest News
October 28, 2011
Lin proposes that the organic reagent activates SOCl2 to directly oxidize the metal, converting gold metal into soluble gold(III) species, for example. This mechanism is tunable for different metals by using different organic reagents and conditions, Lin said. Aqua regia and other systems work by conventional redox reaction mechanisms, he notes. Maria Laura Mercuri of Italy's University of Cagliari is a bit skeptical of organic aqua regia. She is a cofounder of 3R Metals, a company developing low-polluting methods for recovering noble metals from high-tech waste, including a system of iodine coupled with azepinedithiones. Mercuri believes the proposed reaction mechanism still needs to be clarified. And the selectivity aside, although organic aqua regia might be better than using boiling aqua regia, it doesn't appear to be recyclable and SOCl2 and the organic reagents used can be dangerous to handle and harmful to the environment, Mercuri said. "The described reagents still seem very far from application as a green chemistry technology," she said. Lin points out that when it comes to real applications, acetonitrile can be used as the solvent with smaller amounts of SOCl2 and organic reagent, a system that could be recycled. Timo Repo of Finland's University of Helsinki is more upbeat. Repo's group has used pyridinethiols in alcohol to dissolve gold. "Lin's system provides an opportunity for a wide range of applications on different scales," Repo said. "Selective dissolution of noble metals is highly desirable for microelectronic applications, but it will certainly find use in construction of nanostructured materials, too. On the other hand, large-scale applications such as purification and recycling of noble metals are also attainable if issues related to recycling of the etchants are resolved." Chemical & Engineering News ISSN 0009-2347 Copyright 2011 American Chemical Society