Liquid metal dealloying is a metallurgical process for the synthesis of porous and composite functional materials using selective corrosion in a liquid metal. This method relies on the diffusion of liquid metal into a precursor material accompanied by selective dissolution of one or more of its components. Therefore, liquid metal dealloying can be used as a recycling tool for the selective extraction of elements from multi-component alloys. To implement liquid metal dealloying, a specific materials system of at least two materials is required: (i) a corrosive metallic melt and (ii) a precursor. The precursor is a multicomponent alloy composed of at least two elements: one of which is miscible and another is immiscible with the corrosive metal. The corrosive liquid metal selectively dissolves the miscible element upon dealloying.
In this talk, we will discuss about application of liquid metal dealloying for the recycling of functional materials employing liquid Mg as the extraction medium. The dealloying-assisted recycling is promising process due to its high efficiency, selectivity towards specific elements extraction as well as low waste generation.