Researchers at Flinders University have developed an innovative method that promises to address excess waste in the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the technology offers a safer and more environmentally friendly way to extract valuable metals from old devices.
The method can extract gold from traditional rocks and electronic waste, such as old smartphones and computer circuit boards, without the use of highly toxic cyanide and mercury, which are used in traditional mining processes and are extremely harmful to the environment.
The process is based on trichloroisocyanuric acid, a chemical used to purify swimming pool water. Gold is dissolved in salt water and, with the help of a catalyst, adsorbed using a special sulfur-containing polymer adsorbent.
The polymer effectively extracts gold even in the presence of other metals. Upon heating, the gold is released, and the polymer and chemical can be reused. This could pave the way for large-scale gold recovery from electronic waste.
