IISER Pune researchers develop aerogel to extract gold from e-waste

Researchers from Pune have developed an innovative hybrid aerogel designed to efficiently extract gold from electronic waste.

This breakthrough, if implemented on a larger scale, could revolutionise e-waste management while reducing reliance on environmentally damaging mining practices.

The technique, developed at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, also presents a viable economic opportunity to transform waste into valuable resources.

Rise in e-waste

India’s e-waste generation has been rising rapidly, accounting for 6.4% of global e-waste. Electronic waste, which includes devices like computers, smartphones, and gadgets, contains valuable metals such as gold, copper, and silver.

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Sustainable methods to recover these materials are critical as India’s e-waste output increased by 131% between 2020 and 2022, according to the UN Trade and Development report.

The Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 estimates India’s e-waste could rise from 9.2 million tons to 74.7 million tons by 2030.

The process

Led by Sujit Ghosh, the IISER team developed the aerogel, a lightweight, porous material widely used for environmental applications such as oil spill cleanup and insulation.

By treating the aerogel with iron nitrate salts and maintaining it at room temperature for two to five minutes, the researchers created a material capable of extracting up to 99% of gold ions from e-waste.

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The aerogel demonstrated remarkable efficiency, recovering 1689 mg of gold per gram of e-waste under daylight and 2349 mg per gram under blue light.

This dual-action process, combining adsorption and reduction, yielded high-quality gold that required minimal further purification.

This novel approach not only enhances the efficiency of gold recovery but also addresses the growing challenge of e-waste, providing a sustainable solution to an urgent global problem.