While use of GaAs in electronics is growing rapidly and may approach 10% of all integrated circuits by 1990, efficient and environmentally satisfactory methods for recovering gallium, a rare metal in nature, from process scrap do not exist. Handling of arsenic, a toxic substance and expected carcinogen in minute amounts, is a problem both with respect to workplace and environmental levels of arsenic contamination. Research will be conducted into methods of recovering gallium from scrap while isolating arsenic safely. Primary emphasis will be on a smelting separation with arsenic collected in an alloy collector and gallium oxidized into a soda ash slag. Results from this approach will be compared with direct hydrometalturgical methods: leaching, solvent extraction, and precipitation.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: The commercial objective is an economic method of recovering gallium from electronic scrap without arsenic contamination of the workplace or environment. Technical success will lead to a commercial process plant by Bartlett Technologies.
