Highly selective recovery of gold and silver from E-waste via stepwise electrodeposition directly from the pregnant...

The recycling of electronic waste, i.e., waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs), provides substantial environmental and economic advantages. In fact, the concentration of valuable precious and base metals in WPCBs is even higher compared to those found in mined ores. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to selectively extract precious metals with low concentrations from the pregnant leaching solution, due to the co-deposition of base metals, like Cu, which have higher concentrations. In this research, stepwise recovery of precious metals and copper directly from WPCBs thiosulfate leaching solution was facilitated by the Ti cathode coated with MoS₂ (MoS₂/Ti). The in-situ enrichment of Au(S₂O₃)₂^3- and Ag(S₂O₃)₂^3- at the surface of MoS₂ enables the high efficiency and selectivity of electrodeposition, which has been confirmed through COMSOL Multiphysics simulations and visualization. As a result, the first-step electrodeposition at 0.6 V recovered 92.44 % Au and 98.18 % Ag without any co-deposition of Cu. Subsequently, the second-step recovery employed a constant current of 0.03 A, achieving 100 % recovery of copper within 12 h. Furthermore, this study optimized the reduction potential, NH₃·H₂O concentration, and S₂O₃^2- concentration for the stepwise electrodeposition process. These findings provide valuable insights for establishing a closed loop circular economy in the electronics industry.