<p>Your future smartphone may be made out from deep-sea rocks, according to scientists who say that an untapped source of rare earth elements widely used in cell phones may lie under the sea.<br /><br />German scientists have developed a new method to efficiently extract rare earth metals such as Yttrium, Praseodymium and Dysprosium from deep-sea rocks.<br /><br />As millions of smartphones and other electronic gadgets are being developed every year using rare earth metals, supplies of these high-tech materials may become scarce, 'Discovery News' reported.<br /><br />A new study by German geochemists has now found that an untapped source of rare earth elements may lie under the sea.<br /><br />The potential deep-sea sources of rare earth elements are nodules of iron and manganese that are abundant on the ocean floor.<br /><br />These nodules, called ferromanganese deposits, build slowly over time as dissolved iron and manganese in seawater attaches to seafloor sediments.<br /><br />Researchers developed a method to efficiently extract these rare earth metals using the solvent desferrioxamine-B, the report said.</p>.<p>The solvent binds more strongly to some metals than others and when applied to ferromanganese nodules, effectively and efficiently extracts rare earth metals, leaving other metals behind in the nodules.<br /><br />Researchers were able to extract up to 80 per cent of four rare earth metals from ferromanganese nodules by refining their ore-leaching method.<br /><br />The study was published in the journal Applied Geochemistry. </p>
<p>Your future smartphone may be made out from deep-sea rocks, according to scientists who say that an untapped source of rare earth elements widely used in cell phones may lie under the sea.<br /><br />German scientists have developed a new method to efficiently extract rare earth metals such as Yttrium, Praseodymium and Dysprosium from deep-sea rocks.<br /><br />As millions of smartphones and other electronic gadgets are being developed every year using rare earth metals, supplies of these high-tech materials may become scarce, 'Discovery News' reported.<br /><br />A new study by German geochemists has now found that an untapped source of rare earth elements may lie under the sea.<br /><br />The potential deep-sea sources of rare earth elements are nodules of iron and manganese that are abundant on the ocean floor.<br /><br />These nodules, called ferromanganese deposits, build slowly over time as dissolved iron and manganese in seawater attaches to seafloor sediments.<br /><br />Researchers developed a method to efficiently extract these rare earth metals using the solvent desferrioxamine-B, the report said.</p>.<p>The solvent binds more strongly to some metals than others and when applied to ferromanganese nodules, effectively and efficiently extracts rare earth metals, leaving other metals behind in the nodules.<br /><br />Researchers were able to extract up to 80 per cent of four rare earth metals from ferromanganese nodules by refining their ore-leaching method.<br /><br />The study was published in the journal Applied Geochemistry. </p>