Abstract:

Electronic wastes are a rich source of precious metals, e.g., gold (Au), platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and silver (Ag). The recycling of these metals has significant environmental importance. This article demonstrated a chemical approach for recycling gold-containing wastes by dissolving gold with safe chemicals. In this reaction, a ligand and gold could form a coordination complex and thus decrease the electrode potential for gold dissolution. The aims of this article are to show the chemistry of chemical reactions using the dissolution of gold as an example, the presence and selection of chemical approaches for tackling some of the increasing environmental problems, the importance of our living environment and problems that we need to tackle with more efforts.

Key words: Gold, Electronic wastes, Green chemistry, Coordination complex