Development of novel separation and recovery technique for platinum-group metals based on particle-formation process induced by laser reduction

New separation and recovery technique based on particle-formation process induced by laser reduction was designed for platinum-group metals (PGMs). Ions of PGMs in mixture solution of PGMs and lanthanide elements are reduced by excitation of charge-transfer band using UV pulse laser, which is followed by formation of nano-particles. Only platinum-group metals are recovered by filtration because their efficiency of the particle formation is much higher than those of lanthanide elements. The technique was applied to extraction of PGMs from mixture solution of PdCl2, RhCl3, RuCl3 and NdCl3. Analysis using ICP-AES elucidated that the PGMs are extracted from the mixture solution with the separation efficiency of ∼100% in Pd and Rh and with that of ∼50% in Ru. (author)