An international contingent of researchers, which included investigators from Siberia, engineered two-dimensional organic frameworks furnished with integrated “nano-traps,” capable of extracting up to 99.2% of gold from e-waste. This novel procedure is safer and greener, as reported by TASS, citing the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The detailed findings of this research were published in the journal Advanced Materials.
Calculations by the scientists project that by the year 2030, the global volume of electronic waste will escalate to 82 million tonnes, and it is widely understood that a significant portion of this waste stream harbors valuable gold deposits. This reality positions the reclamation of gold from e-waste as a paramount objective for the recycling sector.
The announcement indicates that chemists from Tomsk Polytechnic University, collaborating closely with counterparts from China, have put forward an efficient, environmentally sound, and relatively low-risk methodology for recovering gold from discarded electronics. This was achieved through the creation of two-dimensional organic frameworks embedded with specialized “nano-traps.” These traps sequester gold ions, followed by subsequent exposure to visible light, which facilitates their transformation back into the pure metallic state. Experimental results demonstrate that this innovation offers the potential for successful extraction of up to 99.2% of gold from e-waste, even when dealing with high concentrations of other contaminating elements.
Current conventional methods for gold extraction necessitate harsh chemical agents and considerable energy input, yet they suffer from substandard efficiency and poor selectivity (the capacity to isolate one specific metal type from a mixture). This recent innovation enables gold recovery utilizing Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs), which function as chemical “sponges” whose pores are functionalized with vinylazole linkers. These COFs possess the ability to capture gold weighing up to 4.6 times their own mass.
Significantly, this technology is scalable and can be applied to manage other contaminants (solutions containing gold, copper, nickel, and various other elements). Furthermore, it remains effective even when processing mixtures containing low concentrations of the valuable metals. The structure, featuring vinyl linkages, ensures that the material maintains exceptional chemical robustness across both strongly acidic and alkaline environments. Ultimately, these COFs are reusable: experts confirm that their efficiency will remain high across at least five cycles of adsorption and desorption.
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