scientists find simple method to extract gold from old phones

Thanks to a simple chemical method developed by researchers, hundreds of tons of gold can be recovered annually from old electronic devices such as smartphones, televisions and computers.
The researchers said that the current method of extracting gold from old equipment is inefficient and may be harmful to health because they often use toxic chemicals such as cyanide.
Electronic waste
Old phones, TV and computers.
It is believed that among all the gold in the world, there is up to gold, which is a key component of the printed circuit board inside the electronic device.
According to researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the United States, improving the way precious metals are recovered from discarded electronic equipment can help reduce the environmental impact of gold mining and reduce carbon dioxide emissionsK.
They developed a simple extraction method that does not use toxic chemicals and is more efficient in recovering gold than the current method.
Researchers say the findings help to recover about 300 tons of gold from electronic products each year.
Researchers have discovered a compound that can recover gold more effectively by unlocking complex chemicals that support the extraction process.
The printed circuit boards are first placed in mild acids, which dissolve all of their metal parts.
An oily liquid containing the compound is then added, which selectively extracts gold from complex mixtures of other metals.
These findings can help develop large methods.
The researchers said gold and other precious metals were recovered from discarded electronics on a large scale.
\"We are very excited about this finding, and in particular we have shown that our basic chemical research on the recovery of precious metals from electronic waste may yield potential economic and social benefits, jason Love from the University of Edinburgh said.
The findings were published in the British Journal of Chemistry.