X. Peng

Removal of CdTe in acidic media by magnetic ion-exchange resin: a potential recycling methodology for cadmium telluride photovoltaic waste.

Sulfonated magnetic microspheres (PSt-DVB-SNa MPs) have been successfully prepared as adsorbents via an aqueous suspension polymerization of styrene-divinylbenzene and a sulfonation reaction successively. The resulting adsorbents were confirmed by means of Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The leaching process of CdTe was optimized, and the removal efficiency of Cd and Te from the leaching solution was investigated. The adsorbents could directly remove all cations of Cd and Te from a highly acidic leaching solution of CdTe. The adsorption process for Cd and Te reached equilibrium in a few minutes and this process highly depended on the dosage of adsorbents and the affinity of sulfonate groups with cations. Because of its good adsorption capacity in strong acidic media, high adsorbing rate, and efficient magnetic separation from the solution, PSt-DVB-SNa MPs is expected to be an ideal material for the recycling of CdTe photovoltaic waste.

High temperature oxidation and its induced coercivity loss of a 2:17 type SmCo-based magnet

Oxidation has been explained as one possibility for unacceptable and irreversible coercivity loss of 2:17 type SmCo-based magnets at high temperatures over 550 °C, but the question for how oxidation affects coercivity in the magnet has not been fundamentally answered. In this work, oxidation and its induced degradation of the magnetic phases of a Sm(CobalFe0.22Cu0.08Zr0.02)7.5 magnet in air at 600 °C have been investigated by using transmission electron microscopy and correlated with the demagnetization curves measured. It shows that the coercivity loss, which is significantly increased with oxidation time, is small and independent of time in the magnet unaffected by oxidation. The reason lies in that the 2:17 cell and 1:5 cell boundary, although they have been completely disintegrated in the oxidized part by external oxidation of Co, Fe, and Cu and internal oxidation of Sm, remains in the unoxidized part except that 1:5 boundary close to the oxidized part is decreased in thickness and Cu content.