Scientists extract Gold from smartphone components using whey protein

If you own a smartphone, computer, television, or other similar products, which you probably do, you have hidden gold in your house. You may ask how gold is related to these pieces of electronic items. Well, you’d be surprised to know that the components used in these devices have gold. Yes, circuit boards, connectors, and integrated circuits do have a small amount of gold.

This Gold cannot be easily extracted, and it exudes highly toxic chemicals when gone through the process of extraction. Now, however, scientists have developed a new method to extract gold from these electronic products and it is quite the unique way.

Professor Dr. Raffaele Mezzenga from ETH Zurich University in Switzerland and the team have discovered a new method that uses a cheesemaking process to extract to gold from electronic waste. This method is said to be affordable and sustainable.

Let’s see how the scientists at the University used cheese to extract Gold.

Whey protein is all you need to extract Gold

When milk is curdled and strained the remains of it is a liquid that’s called whey protein. This extract has minerals, lactose, vitamins, and proteins.

For Science nerds: Above is the exact process of extracting Gold from e-waste using Whey protein.

The team of scientists used whey protein to make a sponge to extract gold from the components of these electronic items. The sponge is a better way for gold to stick to it as opposed to other metals, thanks to the special structure of protein.

Once the protein is soaked by the sponge, it is all turned into tiny pieces and melted to make a gold nugget. As reported, scientists extracted a nugget weighing 450 mg of gold. This was all 91 percent pure gold.

This was just the process of a small team of scientists. However, the process has the potential and can be used on a large scale to extract gold from e-waste, as per scientists. This process does look more aligned with the environment as it doesn’t appear to have any adverse environmental effects.

In comparison to other processes, this process is cost-effective and more efficient.