Publications by authors named "Benjamin P Wilson"

A mild, metal-free 1,2-dioxygenation of 1,3-dienes using TEMPO and carboxylic acids is reported. This method includes examples for a variety of 1,3-dienes as well as aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids. This reaction also demonstrates complete site- and regioselectivity in the oxygen addition.

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Ni- and Cu-rich concentrate from a new site in Suhanko, Finland, was investigated. Mineral phases identified included talc, chalcopyrite, kaolinite, and pyrrhotite with 3.2% Cu and 1.

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Achieving carbon neutrality requires deployment of large-scale renewable energy technologies like solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. Nevertheless, methods to ascertain the overall environmental impacts PVs and further improve their sustainability are under-investigated. In an effort to provide more understanding of this crucial topic, this research focuses on silicon flows-a key element for manufacturing crystalline silicon PVs.

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The growing electric vehicle industry has increased the demand for raw materials used in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), raising concerns about material availability. Froth flotation has gained attention as a LIB recycling method, allowing the recovery of low value materials while preserving the chemical integrity of electrode materials. Furthermore, as new battery chemistries such as lithium titanate (LTO) are introduced into the market, strategies to treat mixed battery streams are needed.

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Valorization of the lignocellulosic side and waste streams is key to making industrial processes more efficient from both an economic and ecological perspective. Currently, the production of sugars from beets results in pulps in large quantities. However, there is a lack of promising opportunities for upcycling these materials despite their promising properties.

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This research proposes a new hydrometallurgical method for Zn, In, and Ga extraction, along with Fe as a common impurity, from electric arc furnace dust (EAFD), using ionic liquids. EAFD is a metal-containing waste fraction generated in significant amounts during the process of steelmaking from scrap material in an electric arc furnace. With valuable metal recovery as the main goal, two ionic liquids, [BmimHSO] and [BmimCl], were studied in conjunction with three oxidants: Fe(SO), KMnO, and HO.

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The role of aluminum concentration and pH in the purification of waste Li-ion battery leach solution was investigated using NaOH and LiOH as neutralization agents ([HSO] = 0.313 M, t = 6 h). Solution was prepared from synthetic chemicals to mimic real battery leach solution.

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This study presents a process for preparation of cellulose-lignin barrier coatings for hot-dip galvanized (HDG) steel by aqueous electrophoretic deposition. Initially, a solution of softwood kraft lignin and diethylene glycol monobutyl ether was used to prepare an aqueous dispersion of colloidal lignin particles (CLPs) solvent exchange. Analysis of the dispersion showed that it comprised submicron particles ( = 146 nm) with spherical morphologies and colloidal stability (ζ-potential = -40 mV).

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A combined low-temperature-roasting and water-washing process is investigated as a hazard-free method to treat electrolytic manganese residue (EMR) and recover manganese. In this study, the phase transformation characteristics and a thermodynamics analysis of the low temperature roasting process of EMR are evaluated. In addition, the effects of temperature and time on the phase transformation of EMR in the roasting process and the washing characteristics of roasted EMR samples are also investigated.

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Industrially produced spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) waste contain not only strategic metals such as cobalt and lithium but also impurity elements like copper, aluminum and iron. The current work investigates the distribution of the metallic impurity elements in LIBs waste, and their influence on the acid dissolution of target active materials. The results demonstrate that the presence of these, naturally reductive, impurity elements (e.

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Currently, the first generation of solar panels are reaching their end-of-life, however so far, there is no best available technology (BAT) to deal with solar panel waste in terms of the optimized circular economy of metals. In this brief communication, electro-hydraulic fragmentation (EHF) is explored as an initial conditioning stage of photovoltaic (PV) modules to facilitate the recovery of valuable metals with the main goal to produce liberated fractions that are suitable for the retrieval of materials like Si, Ag, Cu, Sn, Pb, and Al. When compared to traditional crushing, the results suggest that dismantling of PV panels using EHF shows more selectivity by concentrating metals among well-defined particle size fractions.

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In the current study, platinum-present as a negligible component (below 1 ppb, the detection limit of the HR-ICP-MS at the dilutions used) in real industrial hydrometallurgical process solutions-was recovered by an electrodeposition-redox replacement (EDRR) method on pyrolyzed carbon (PyC) electrode, a method not earlier applied to metal recovery. The recovery parameters of the EDRR process were initially investigated using a synthetic nickel electrolyte solution ([Ni] = 60 g/L, [Ag] = 10 ppm, [Pt] = 20 ppm, [HSO] = 10 g/L), and the results demonstrated an extraordinary increase of 3 × 10 in the [Pt]/[Ni] on the electrode surface cf. synthetic solution.

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Recycling of valuable metals from secondary resources such as waste Li-ion batteries (LIBs) has recently attracted significant attention due to the depletion of high-grade natural resources and increasing interest in the circular economy of metals. In this article, the sulfuric acid leaching of industrially produced waste LIBs scraps with 23.6% cobalt (Co), 3.

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In NiMH battery leaching, rare earth element (REE) precipitation from sulfate media is often reported as being a result of increasing pH of the pregnant leach solution (PLS). Here we demonstrate that this precipitation is a phenomenon that depends on both Na and SO concentrations and not solely on pH. A two-stage leaching for industrially crushed NiMH waste is performed: The first stage consists of HSO leaching (2 M HSO, L/S = 10.

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Basic adsorption of hydrophobic polymers from aprotic solvents was introduced as a platform technology to modify exclusively the surfaces of cellulose nanopapers. Dynamic vapor sorption demonstrated that the water vapor uptake ability of the nanopapers remained unperturbed, despite strong repellency to liquid water caused by the adsorbed hydrophobic polymer on the surface. This was enabled by the fact that the aprotic solvents used for adsorption did not swell the nanopaper unlike water that is generally applied as the adsorption medium in such systems.

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Cellulose acetate (CA)-based membranes are used for Mg dissolution control: the permeability of the membrane is adjusted by additions of the polyelectrolyte, poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA). Spin-coated films were characterized with FT-IR, and once exposed to an aqueous solution the film distends and starts acting as a membrane which controls the flow of ions and H2 gas. Electrochemical measurements (linear sweep voltammograms, open-circuit potential, and polarization) show that by altering the CA:PDMAEMA ratio the dissolution rate of Mg can be controlled.

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Mesoporous TiO(2) nanocontainers (NCs) covered with polyelectrolyte multilayers were adsorbed on self-assembled monolayer (SAM) modified gold substrates at different values of pH and ionic strength. The adsorption process was followed in situ by means of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and the morphology of the adsorbate was investigated by means of FE-SEM images taken of the substrates after each adsorption process. Deposition could be achieved if either the particles and the surface had opposite charge, or if the salt concentration was sufficiently high, reducing the repulsion between the spheres and the surface.

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