Spin it faster, catch the copper: a whirl in a jar sorts precious metal dust factories throw away

The fine metal powders used to make aircraft parts, medical implants, battery materials and cutting tools are valuable — but once copper, aluminium and other powders get mixed together in handling, the whole batch is usually thrown away, because nobody could un-mix dust. Researchers at the University of Maine, led by Bashir Khoda, have found a disarmingly simple way in. Their method, called SHAPE, stirs the mixed powders in liquid and spins them: at a gentle 200 revolutions per minute, about 87% of the particles caught on a thin plastic film are the lighter aluminium; spin up to 1,500 revolutions per minute and about 90% of what is caught is copper. It is an early laboratory result — the team is open that only small amounts are recovered so far, and scaling up is the next job — but the findings, published in Powder Technology, point to a future where contaminated powder is sorted and reused instead of landfilled.

SDG 12 · Responsible consumption and production — Mechanism: tech innovation