Investigation of ultrasonic influence on the kinetics of extracting gold from electronic waste

In this paper the effect of ultrasonic treatment on the apparent activation energy of gold leaching from e-waste in aqueous thiourea solution was studied. The leaching was carried out under conventional conditions and under ultrasonic treatment. The leaching in both cases was carried out at 25 °C, 35 °C, 45 °C and 60 °C. The apparent activation energy using ultrasonic activation decreases. In both cases the process of gold leaching from e-waste proceeds in the diffusion region. Thus, ultrasonic intensification is a means of increasing the efficiency of hydrometallurgical processes of e-waste processing by reducing the activation energy of the process.