Separation of PGMs Bearing Alumina Phase from Cordierite in Spent Automobile Catalyst by Thermal Shock

Spent automobile catalyst is an important secondary resource of PGMs but the present recycling technologies require high energy-consumption. It is of much important to enrich the PGMs with some energy saving physical separation methods. This catalyst is usually composed of cordierite lattice which is covered by PGMs bearing coat layer. We adopted heating-quenching process as a pre-treatment of subsequent selective grinding and compositional concentration. It was found that micro-cracks were generated in the coat layer and the interface of the two phases and that some part of the coat layer was detached from the cordierite substrate. This paper analyzes the mechanism of these phenomena by using mathematical calculation and FEM simulation.