Recovery of silver and gold from electronic waste by electrodeposition in ethaline ionic liquid

Abstract

The recycling of metals from electronic equipment waste (e-waste) is of great concern today. The work described in the article focuses on the application of ionic liquids (ILs) to selectively recover of precious metals (Ag and Au) from the anodic slime obtained at the anodic dissolution of cast e-waste. The ingots obtained from molten and cast anodic slime were selectively dissolved in ILs. Silver and gold compositions of the ingots: 39.7 wt.% and respectively 18.9 wt.%. The IL used was an eutectic mixture of choline chloride with ethylene glycol in a 1:2 molar ratio. As catalytic/oxidizing agent, there was used pure iodine in a concentration of 0.1-0.2 mol dm-3 at 298-303 K. Cyclic voltammetry was employed for the determination of the electrochemical windows of ILs as well as of the dissolution and electrodeposition potentials of principal metals present in the ingot (anode). For Ag and Au, the deposition potentials determined were 0.074 V and respectively 0.696 V. The XRD and SEM-EDX analyses revealed that the content of precious metals in the cathodic deposits was 99 wt.% for Ag and respectively >70 wt.% for Au. We demonstrated that ILs electrolytes could be a solution to selective recovery of precious metals from e-waste.