Electronic recycling
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Electronic recycling involves the extraction of various elements, mainly precious metals or metalloids from waste electronics. Most notably, gold can be extracted from computer parts such as processors.
Overview
E-waste are a good source of materials for the amateur chemist or electronics hobbyist. Useful materials, such as magnets, copper wiring, coils, quartz, Nichrome wiring, aluminium heatsinks etc. can be found in various scrap electronics. Working components, such as cooling fans, electromagnetic coils, switches, heating elements, LEDs, phone cameras and even functional electronic parts can also be obtained from e-wastes.
The most known aspect of the electronic recycling is the extraction of precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum or palladium from various electronic parts, such as computer motherboards, cellphones or old industrial boards. A dedicated recycler can also obtain usable amounts of tantalum, nickel, cadmium, and other metals or their compounds.
Older electronics tend to contain heavy metals, so proper protection should be worn when handling them.
