Smartphone recycling
Although smartphones contain a host of valuable metals, getting at them is the tricky bit. Emma Davies reports
Most of us have unused mobile phones at home, but because they small and easy to forget, they are rarely recycled. And that’s a problem, as each phone contains as many as 60 elements, from indium on a smartphone’s screen to the lithium in the batteries. The electronics comprise copper, gold, silver and tantalum. Elsewhere in the phone, rare earth elements are widely used. But how can chemistry help us get at those elements and separate them into useful metals again?