How to Recycle Pure Gold from Gold Sputtering Target?

Gold sputtering targets are widely used in decorative coatings such as jewelry and watches. Gold is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, which means gold is a very stable metal. As one of the precious metals, gold itself is extremely valuable. In order to save the coating cost, gold target recycling is an important part of gold coating.

Sputtering targets, especially planar sputtering targets, have a low utilization rate, so there are many unused portions after sputtering is completed. Therefore, target recycling is necessary for the precious pepper targets. As the picture below shows, there is more to a gold sputtering target than just the target material. Even when most of the target material has been removed after the target has been used repeatedly, you still have quantities of other metals in the two surfaces below.

The bonding material–Depending on how the target is made, even if the life of the target has passed, many valuable metals can be found in the layer. The thin layer typically comprises silver - as a silver solder, as a component or other form of a silver-containing epoxy resin. Of course, silver is not the most precious of precious metals, but if you have a lot of used sputtering targets, you may get a lot of money from silver recycling.

The backing plate –They are usually made of aluminum, copper, stainless steel or even molybdenum. However, in some cases they may also contain precious metals such as palladium or cadmium. During the sputtering process, a small amount of gold may also be plated on the exposed areas of the backsheet - and of course you don't want to throw it away.

If you have used sputter targets that have not been discarded - especially if they are gold targets - please contact us to assess their value. We also provide target reclaim services. Please visit https://www.sputtertargets.net/ for more information.