Extract Gold From Trash: Easy Techniques to Extract Gold from E-Waste - Playtekno

Can you believe researchers found a way to extract gold from old electronics using milk?! Scientists have been trying to get precious metals out of e-waste for years. Things like cell phones and laptops contain tiny bits of gold that add up. Normally getting that gold means using chemicals that aren't so great for nature.

But check this out - a scientist named Raffaele figured we could turn milk into a weird jelly-like material called an aerogel. Aerogels are super absorbent and can pull gold straight from trashed devices. Pretty cool using something natural from the fridge, right? Who knew old milk could find hidden gold in junk. Now we might not need nasty chemicals to mine metals from garbage. Talk about recycling with style!

Raffaele and his team are total geniuses. They found a secret weapon hiding in plain sight to extract gold - whey protein leftovers from cheesemaking! Can you believe taking a waste product and turning it super absorbent?

To get that party started, whey goes in some acid water and gets heated up real good. This untangles the protein strings so they spread out crazy thin. Then they freeze the mixture fast, leaving behind this puffy airy solid sponge. Making the sponge is dirt cheap too. Raffaele said the gold you pull out is worth 50 times more than it costs to make the magic magic squeegee!

I’m telling you, finding ways to reuse trash is brilliant. These eggheads turn a “byproduct” into a gold-grabbing tool. Talk about innovative recycling!

Mohammad, another dude working with Raffaele, says these gold-grabbing gels can literally sit on top of things. Can you believe it?! The sponges are so lightweight you could place them on flowers and stuff.

But get this - their massive surface area is what really lets them shine at squeezing out gold. See, inside the gel there's like a zillion tiny nooks that attract gold inside the aerogel superstructure.

Mohammad and the gang put the whey wonder to the test. They dropped it in a mix containing equal amounts of gold along with other metals like copper, lead and nickel. And wouldn't ya know - the gel soaked up gold on its own without even trying! These researcher rockstars sure know their stuff when it comes to extracting gold.

You'll never believe this - the old milk aerogel scored 93% on the gold extraction test! It barely took any of the other metals too.

To level-up, the team dissolved real leftover circuit boards in some gnarly acid mix. and wouldn't you know - gold ions swam right over and stuck to the gel's surface. Each gram grabbed a whopping 190 milligrams of gold!

After torching the aerogel, a tiny nugget appeared in the ashes. Mohammad was stunned - it was 91% pure gold. That's like 21 karats! He said finding that little treasure was super satisfying.

Plus, the gel worked much better than regular carbon, which only pulled in 60 milligrams of gold per gram. And carbon takes way more energy to create. Talk about an efficient eco-friendly solution for extracting gold!

Raffaele and co. have even bigger plans using other food proteins. Imagine recycling everything and mining precious metals...all while reducing waste. How's that for a win-win!