Reduction of precious metal ions in aqueous solutions by contact-electro-catalysis

Abstract

Precious metals are core assets for the development of modern technologies in various fields. Their scarcity poses the question of their cost, life cycle and reuse. Recently, an emerging catalysis employing contact-electrification (CE) at water-solid interfaces to drive redox reaction, called contact-electro-catalysis (CEC), has been used to develop metal free mechano-catalytic methods to efficiently degrade refractory organic compounds, produce hydrogen peroxide, or leach metals from spent Li-Ion batteries. Here, we show ultrasonic CEC can successfully drive the reduction of Ag(ac), Rh³⁺, [PtCl₄]^2-, Ag⁺, Hg²⁺, Pd²⁺, [AuCl₄]^-, and Ir³⁺, in both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The effect of oxygen on the reaction is studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and ab-initio simulation. Combining measurements of charge transfers during water-solid CE, EPR spectroscopy and gold extraction experiments help show the link between CE and CEC. What’s more, this method based on water-solid CE is capable of extracting gold from synthetic solutions with concentrations ranging from as low as 0.196 ppm up to 196 ppm, reaching in 3 h extraction capacities ranging from 0.756 to 722.5 mg g⁻¹ in 3 h. Finally, we showed CEC is employed to design a metal-free, selective, and recyclable catalytic gold extraction methods from e-waste aqueous leachates.

Currently, precious metal recovery from e-waste water is usually performed by liquid extraction or sorbent processes. Here, the authors show the untapped potential of dielectric insulators as catalysts for the 1-step selective recovery of gold in aqueous solutions by contact-electrocatalysis.