Researchers Turn Electronic Garbage Into Gold
Turning garbage into gold sounds like alchemy, not science. But researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated an efficient, sustainable method to extract gold nuggets from common electronic waste.The process uses not one, but two waste products. Gold is coaxed from e-waste with a protein amyloid nanofibril (AF) aerogel derived from whey, a by-product of cheese making. The aerogel acts like a gold sponge, and the researchers were able to extract a nearly pure, 22-karat, gold nugget weighing almost half a gram from 20 discarded computer motherboards.“We knew protein sponges have a very high absorption capacity for gold, but our surprise was to f...... Read Full article on HadNews