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Microbial Bioleaching of Ag, Au and Cu from Printed Circuit Boards of Mobile Phones

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Abstract

Electronic waste (E-Waste) is consumed at high speed in the world. These residues contain metals that increase their price each year, generating new research on the ability of microorganisms to recover the metals from these wastes. Therefore, this work evaluated the biologic lixiviation of Cu, Ag and Au from printed circuit boards (PCB) of mobile phones by three strains of Aspergillus niger, Candida orthopsilosis, Sphingomonas sp. and their respective consortia, in addition to leaching with citric acid. The microorganisms were cultured in mineral media with 0.5 g of PCB, and the treatments with 1M citric acid were added the same amount of PCB. All treatments were incubated for 35 days at room temperature. The results showed that Sphingomonas sp. MXB8 and the consortium of C. orthopsilosis MXL20 and A. niger MXPE6 can increase their dry biomass by 147% and 126%, respectively, in the presence of PCB. In the bioleaching of metals, the inoculation of A. niger MXPE6, the consortium of Sphingomonas sp. MXB8/C. orthopsilosis MXL20 and Sphingomonas sp. MXB8 leached 54%, 44.2% and 35.8% of Ag. The consortium of A. niger MX5 and A. niger MXPE6 showed a leaching of 0.53% of Au. A. niger MX5 leaching 2.8% Cu. Citric acid increased Cu leaching by 280% compared to treatments inoculated with microorganisms. Although further research is required, A. niger MXPE6 and the consortium of Sphingomonas sp. MXB8/C. orthopsilosis MXL20 could be an alternative to recover Ag from PCB of mobile phones.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank CONACYT for financial support provided by the research Grant CB-239601.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Posgrado en Ciencias Agropecuarias, Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n, 91000, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    María E. Díaz-Martínez, Rosalba Argumedo-Delira & Gabriela Sánchez-Viveros

  2. Unidad de Servicios de Apoyo en Resolución Analítica (SARA), Universidad Veracruzana, Luis Castelazo Ayala s/n, Col. Industrial Animas, 91190, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Rosalba Argumedo-Delira & Ma. Remedios Mendoza-López

  3. Posgrado de Edafología. Colegio de Postgraduados, Carretera México-Texcoco km 36.5, 56230, Montecillo, Estado de México, Mexico

    Alejandro Alarcón

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  1. María E. Díaz-Martínez
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Correspondence to Rosalba Argumedo-Delira.

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Díaz-Martínez, M.E., Argumedo-Delira, R., Sánchez-Viveros, G. et al. Microbial Bioleaching of Ag, Au and Cu from Printed Circuit Boards of Mobile Phones. Curr Microbiol 76, 536–544 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-019-01646-3

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