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2nd Meeting of the 199th Session (2019-2020)
Professor Jason Love FRSC
On Monday 28th October 2019, at 7pm
Modern materials, electronics, transport, and health therapies all depend on a myriad of metals from across the periodic table, many of which are precious, listed as critical, or arise from areas of conflict. The separation of these elements from their ores and their recycling from the "urban mine" is therefore becoming increasingly important to provide a circular economy that is environmentally benign and societally beneficial. This lecture will provide an overview of the scientific advances in metal recovery and separation from electronic waste, a rapidly expanding and valuable source of metals. A particular focus will be on two modern scientific challenges, the chemistry that underpins the recycling of gold, the most valuable metal in your smartphone, and on the separation of the rare-earth elements, one of our most critical resources.
Jason Love undertook his BSc degree and PhD at Salford University, was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Sussex and Nottingham Universities and is currently Professor of Molecular Inorganic Chemistry at Edinburgh University. He is a co-director of the EPSRC CDT for Critical Resource Catalysis (CRITICAT), a centre which delivers training and research in catalysis across St Andrews, Edinburgh, and Heriot-Watt Universities, and is the chair of the RSC Coordination and Organometallic chemistry Discussion Group (CODG). He was a visiting professor at the Technical University Munich, Germany (2015) and the University of Osaka, Japan (2019-20). He has published 122 peer-reviewed articles and has delivered over 40 invited lectures since 2010, including at New Scientist Live (2018). He has broad interests that span the periodic table, with focus on catalysis, rare-earth element chemistry, and the recovery and recycling of metals from primary and secondary sources.