University of Pennsylvania
Assembly Line
A greener, cleaner way to extract cobalt from ‘junk’ materials
To that end, an area of research his lab has been focusing on is the separation of battery-critical metals like nickel and cobalt. In a new paper, published in the journal Chem, Schelter’s team and collaborators at Northwestern University presented an “easier, more sustainable, and cheaper way to separate both from materials that would otherwise be considered waste.”
Typically, the researchers say, cobalt is often produced as a byproduct of nickel mining by way of hydrometallurgical methods such as acid leaching and solvent extraction, which separates cobalt and nickel from ores. It’s an energy-intensive method that generates significant hazardous waste.
The process Schelter and the team developed to circumvent this is based on a chemical-separation technique that leverages the charge density and bonding differences between two molecular complexes: the cobalt (III) hexammine complex and the nickel (II) hexammine complex.
By introducing a specific negatively charged molecule, or anion, like carbonate into the system, they created a molecular solid structure that causes the cobalt complex to precipitate out of the solution while leaving the nickel one dissolved. Their work showed that the carbonate anion selectively interacts with the cobalt complex by forming strong “hydrogen bonds” that create a stable precipitate. After precipitation, the cobalt-enriched solid is separated through filtration, washed with ammonia, and dried. The remaining solution contains nickel, which can then be processed separately.
LIG Nex1 to buy quadruped robot maker Ghost Robotics for $240 mn
LIG Nex1 Co., a South Korean weapons system developer, has agreed to buy a 60% stake in Ghost Robotics Corp (GRC), a Philadelphia-based robot developer, for $240 million to advance into the US defense industry. Founded in 2015, Ghost Robotics is a spinout of an engineering lab at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).
LIG Nex1 will inject $142.2 million into the deal and Korea Investment Private Equity will fund the $96 million remainder via a special purchase company (SPC) to be established for the acquisition.