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Gold Recycling at Laboratory Scale: From Nanowaste to Nanospheres
Author(s) -
Oestreicher Víctor,
García Carolina S.,
SolerIllia Galo J. A. A.,
Angelomé Paula C.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.201901488
Subject(s) - nanomaterials , colloidal gold , reagent , nanotechnology , aqueous solution , reuse , materials science , nanoparticle , process engineering , chemistry , waste management , organic chemistry , engineering
The market for products based on nanotechnology, and with it the use of nanomaterials and the generation of nanowaste, increases day by day. Among the vast variety of nanomaterials available, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are among the most studied and applied in commercial products. This current situation requires both the development of recovery methods to reduce the amount of nanowaste produced, and new synthetic methods that allow the reuse of recovered gold for new nanomaterial production, keeping in mind both economical and ecological considerations. In this work, a methodology to recover gold from aqueous laboratory nanowaste and transform it into an aqueous HAuCl 4 solution was developed, using extremely simple procedures and readily available chemical reagents (NaCl, HCl, H 2 O 2 ) and allowing the recovery of more than 99 % of the original gold. The experiments were performed by using both simulated and real laboratory nanowastes, and practically the same results were obtained. Moreover, the subsequent use of the obtained aqueous HAuCl 4 solution from the recovered gold to produce spherical AuNPs through a seed‐mediated approach was demonstrated. Thus, this work presents for the first time a complete recycling cycle from nanowaste to the reagent and back to the nanomaterial.