Congrats to Stephen and Nayeong for their recently published paper on electrochemical separation approaches for the recovery of gold from sustainable mining and electronic waste recycling!
The paper was published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, and demonstrates a modular electrochemical separation platform via metallopolymer-functionalized electrodes to selectively recover and concentrate gold from electronic waste and simulated mining streams. The electrodes display exceptional selectivity to gold in the presence of competing metals such as silver, nickel, copper, and iron. Finally, electrochemical recycling of gold from real-world electronic waste (e.g., RAM boards) was accomplished with a recovery efficiency 99% and superior technoeconomics to traditional sorbent systems, leading to a 94% cost reduction and over 90% final gold purity.