Mining for lost silver.To recover silver from used X-ray film Noun 1. X-ray film - photographic film used to make X-ray pictures bitewing - a dental X-ray film that can be held in place by the teeth during radiography , Haruo Ishikawa, a chemist at Japan's University of Osaka Prefecture  This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.You can assist by [ editing it] now. , and his colleagues have devised a biological technique to break down the film's emulsion, which holds the silver particles in place. The scientists use a bacterial enzyme to attack the film's gelatin gelatin or animal jelly, foodstuff obtained from connective tissue (found in hoofs, bones, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage) of vertebrate animals by the action of boiling water or dilute acid. coating and release silver particles into solution. The metal then precipitates, Ishikawa reported at last month's meeting of the ICCPBS in Honolulu. This technique produces no pollutants, recovers high-grade silver, and frees up the film's polyester base for recycling, Ishikawa says. To put the method into practice, a pilot plant to reprocess re·proc·ess tr.v. re·proc·essed, re·proc·ess·ing, re·proc·ess·es To cause to undergo special or additional processing before reuse. Verb 1. 1 ton of used X-ray film per day is scheduled to open in Osaka within 2 years, he told Science News. Production of X-ray film consumes as much as one-fifth of all silver consumed by industry worldwide. |
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