Recent trends in material design and preparation with structure-activity relationship for gold recovery from E-waste: A review

The limited gold resource demands the identification of unconventional sources as sustainable resources for future generations. With the increasing demand for gold used in electronics identifying electronic-waste (E-waste) as a safe and sustainable gold source for electronic safety. At the end of life electronic equipment is the fastest-growing waste that threatens human life as well as the environment. Globally only 20–30% of E-waste is recycled for the recovery of gold and its recycling preserves the gold reserve, boosts the economy, controls the cost of electronic goods, and maintains environmental safety. This review reports the materials in depth developed from 2000 to 2022 for gold recovery from E-waste including the recent modification in inorganic materials with associated studies to groups like amidoxime; nanostructured materials such as metal oxides, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs), porous organic polymers (POPs); reduced graphene oxide (rGO) etc. This review provides a recycling strategy for sustainability and aims to maximize their contribution to society in present and future generations. This briefing describes the challenges and provides the perfect approaches for gold recovery that are safe and sustainable by design and identifies enabling conditions that support their uptake, challenges, and opportunities.