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Fibrous adsorbent selectively extracts high purity gold from waste. It significantly reduces the cost and time of the recovery process and also allows mass production and repeated processing
Fibrous adsorbent selectively extracts high purity gold from waste. It significantly reduces the cost and time of the recovery process and also allows mass production and repeated processing of the material. Korea is dependent on imports for most of its metal resources, and “circular resources” that recycle metal waste have emerged in recent years due to resource depletion and rising raw material prices.
In response, SK hynix is ​​developing copper, gold, etc. that are recovered and reused from semiconductor waste. It has developed a medium- and long-term plan to increase the percentage to over 30% by 2030, and Samsung Electronics is running a collection program for used waste. mobile phones in collaboration with the non-profit organization E-circulation Governance. The global circular economy market is expected to more than double from approximately $338 billion in 2022 to approximately $712 billion in 2026.
In this context, Dr. from the Water Resources Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). A team led by Jae-Woo Choi announced that they have developed a technology that can selectively extract high-purity gold from electrical and electronic materials. Wastes containing various metals resulting from the use of textile materials.
Adsorbents for metal recovery are usually in granular form to increase adsorption efficiency based on high specific surface area, but are difficult to control under water, resulting in low recovery rates and even secondary environmental pollution. On the other hand, fibrous materials have high potential for industrial applications as they are easy to control under water and can be shaped into different shapes during the weaving process. However, due to their thin thickness and low strength, they break easily when gold is applied to the base.
KIST researchers chemically immobilized alkaline molecules on the surface of polyacrylonitrile (PANF) fibers to improve molecular gold recovery efficiency and structural stability. The amine-containing polymer fiber has a significantly larger surface area, which can increase the adsorption efficiency of gold (Au) ions in waste by up to 2.5 times (from 576 mg/g to 1462 mg/g) compared to the team previously developed. . granulated gold adsorption material.
The developed fibrous adsorbent not only showed a gold recovery efficiency of over 99.9% in solutions obtained with real processors, but also achieved a gold recovery efficiency of close to 100% over a wide pH range of 1-4, which includes most waste liquids. did. . Of particular note is that only gold ions can be recovered with a high purity of over 99.9%, even in the presence of 14 other metal ions coexisting in solution. Additionally, gold recovery was maintained at 91% even after 10 applications, demonstrating excellent reusability.
Dr. “The fibrous adsorbent developed by KIST can enable efficient and environmentally friendly recovery of metal resources, reducing Korea’s dependence on resource imports and preparing for the risk of rising commodity prices,” said Jae-Woo Choi. Dr. “We plan to expand the scope of future research to selectively recover various target metals in addition to gold,” said Yongkyun Jung.
Source: Port Altele
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