MOOKNAYAK MEDIA
MOOKNAYAK MEDIA BUREAU | January 02, 2025 | Jaipur : In these days, Cell phone recycling plays a major role in the recycling industry. Cell phone cards have a good quantity of gold. In this tutorial, I explain two types of cell phone recycling. Gold recovery from the cell phone is some critical but this can give you a handsome profit.
To extract the gold, you’ll need to use a chemical process. Aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, is commonly used for this purpose. Here’s how you do it: Place the gold-bearing components in a glass container.
How to extract gold from unused mobile phones
BBC report says that Scientists have developed a new technique for recovering precious metals without using toxic chemicals. The team believe their method could help salvage some of the estimated 300 tonnes of gold used in electronic circuitry every year.
Electrical waste is thought to contain as much as 7% of the world’s gold. Existing methods of extracting gold from circuit boards are inefficient and potentially hazardous as they involve toxic chemicals such as cyanide, the researchers said.
By studying the chemistry underpinning the extraction, the team said they were able to develop a compound that could be used to recover gold more effectively. There is actual gold in your phone, used because of its excellent conductivity and resistance to corrosion.
A smartphone might have around 0.034 grams of gold
However, the amount of gold contained in a phone is smaller than one might expect. On average, a smartphone might have around 0.034 grams of gold. “… And processes to extract the gold from the other materials. The extracted gold is then purified. And refined into pure gold bullion that can be sold or used for other purposes….”
Circuit boards are first immersed in a mild acid which dissolves their metal parts. An oily liquid containing the compound is then added, which extracts the gold from other metals. Prof Jason Love, from the university’s school of chemistry, said the discovery could help reduce the environmental impact of gold mining.
He said: “We are very excited about this discovery, especially as we have shown that our fundamental chemical studies on the recovery of valuable metals from electronic waste could have potential economic and societal benefits.”
How to extract gold from mobile phones
- Hydrometallurgical methods
These methods include precipitation, solvent extraction, and leaching. Microwave pyrolysis can be used as a pre-treatments process to prevent the loss of precious metals.
- Chemical compound
Researchers have developed a compound that can be used to recover gold from printed circuit boards (PCBs). The process involves placing the PCBs in a mild acid to dissolve the metal parts, and then adding an oily liquid containing the compound to extract the gold.
- Electrolysis
An old laptop charger can be used for electrolysis to recover gold from a solution. Stainless steel can be used as the anode and steel wool as the cathode. After running the cell for a few hours, the gold should electroplate onto the steel wool.
Existing methods of extracting gold from circuit boards can be inefficient and hazardous because they involve toxic chemicals like cyanide. The amount of gold in a SIM card is usually measured in milligrams or micrograms. For example, a typical SIM card may contain around 8 milligrams of gold.
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