A new environmentally friendly process for the recovery of gold from electronic waste

A new method for the recovery of precious metals, in particular gold, from electronic waste is proposed. This work focused on the research of an easily renewable etching agent, in order to make an environmentally friendly process possible. Two well known hydrometallurgical etching agents, FeCl3 and CuCl2, were evaluated in terms of efficiency and kinetics, testing solutions with different concentration of etchant and hydrochloric acid. The recovery of spent etching solutions was evaluated: promising results were found in the case of CuCl2, which can be completely restored by oxidation of the cuprous chloride formed during the etching using atmospheric oxygen.