Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of strongly coordinating mediator-based electro-reduction (CMBER) for heavy metal highly efficient recovery.

The strongly coordinating mediator-based cathode spontaneously captures heavy metal ions directly from their complexes without the need for external energy and subsequently reduce them in situ to recover the metals. The process regenerates amidoxime’s active sites during the electro-reduction of captured heavy metal ions to heavy metals, thereby enabling the continuous capture and recovery of heavy metal ions over extended periods.