With the help of graphene, it is possible to extract gold from e-waste

 Beijing: Millions of tons of electronic waste (e-waste) is generated every year around the world, which also contains gold. However, with the help of graphene, gold can now be extracted in an environmentally friendly way, which was previously difficult, time-consuming and heavy on the environment.

Gold is commonly used in electrical circuits and processors, but no suitable method of extracting it has yet been discovered. Now the University of Manchester, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have jointly discovered an efficient way to extract gold from electrical waste from graphene.

First, e-waste is collected and dissolved in this solution. A thin layer of graphene oxide is then applied, after which gold begins to deposit on its surface. Just one gram of graphene distills 95% of the gold from a one-part-per-billion solution. Importantly, it does not allow other metals in the solution to accumulate. Finally, when the graphene layer is burned, what remains is pure gold.

In this way the gold can be collected easily instead of going to waste. Although this is an electrochemical process, the magic of graphene is inherent in it. On the other hand, large amounts of gold can be reclaimed by reclamation.

Its details have been published in the journal Nature Communications.