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Showing posts from October, 2018

What Materials are Smartphones made of The story behind Making Cell Phones

Gold, silver, and copper are actually just a few of the 70 or so chemical elements that make up the average smartphone.  These can be divided into different groups, two of the most critical being rare earth elements and precious metals.  Rare earths are a selection of 17 elements that are actually common in Earth’s crust and are found in many areas across the world in low concentrations. These elements have a huge range of magnetic, phosphorescent, and conductive properties that make them crucial to modern technologies. In fact, of the 17 types of rare earth metals, phones and other electronics may contain up to 16. In smartphones, these create the screen and color display, aid conductivity, and produce the signature vibrations, amongst other things. And yet, crucial as they are, extracting these elements from the earth is linked to some disturbing environmental impacts. Rare