Green Recovery of Precious Metals from E‐waste via Autocatalytic Leaching

Abstract

Abstract The escalating global demand for precious metals necessitates sustainable recycling from secondary resources like electronic waste. Conventional leaching techniques, however, remain constrained by their dependence on volatile solvents, external catalysts, and energy‐intensive operations. Herein, we introduce an autocatalytic leaching strategy employing a benign aqueous solution of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) and potassium chloride (KCl), which operates without any external catalyst. This system achieves near‐quantitative dissolution (>98.2%) of gold (Au) within 20 min at ambient temperature. The process is autonomously driven by the precious metals themselves, which activate PMS and Cl − to generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) and trace hypochlorous acid (HOCl), acting in synergy to oxidize Au to higher valent states and facilitate chlorine‐coordinated extraction. An economic analysis confirms the system's compelling viability when applying to real e‐waste, showing drastically reduced energy consumption (∼62.5%) and reagent costs (∼93.2%). This study provides key insights into the role of autocatalytically generated active species in metal leaching and offers a sustainable pathway toward resource circularity.