Efficient gold recovery from waste electronic and electric equipment by amino-modified covalent triazine frameworks

Recycling gold from e-waste is not only conducive to alleviating the pressure on resources and environment, but also has high economic value. Therefore, construction of adsorbents with high capacity and selectivity and low cost is significative for gold recovery from waste electronic and electric equipment (WEEE). Herein, aminofunctionalized covalent triazine frameworks (NH2-CTFs) were synthesized by ionothermal conditions. NH2CTF-1 and NH2-CTF-2 with high porosity and good thermal stability exhibit excellent gold recovery performance. Meanwhile, gold ions can be in situ reduced into gold nanoparticles by NH2-CTFs along with the adsorption process. Furthermore, NH2-CTF-1 and NH2-CTF-2 present good gold adsorption selectivity from WEEE. Notably, NH2-CTF-1 possesses high gold adsorption capacity (909 mg g-1) and outstanding recovery profit. These excellent performances confirm the potential of NH2-CTF-1 and NH2-CTF-2 for gold recovery from WEEE.