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<p>This study examines the interfacial engineering of a novel gold-polyurethane foam (Au-PUF) nanocomposite fabricated through a dual-waste valorization process. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) recovered from electronic waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) were immobilized onto discarded polyurethane foam via a chitosan-mediated crosslinking to produce a structurally stable, floating photocatalyst. The successful immobilization of the AuNPs onto the 3D-interconnected porous network of the foam was confirmed by field-emission characterization (SEM/TEM), FTIR, EDX, and XRD. Response surface methodology (RSM) with a Box-Behnken design was applied to optimize the degradation of tetracycline (TC) as a function of initial TC concentration (10–100&#xa0;mg/L), solution pH (4–10), and reaction temperature (25–45&#xa0;°C). The optimum removal efficiency of 79 ± 2% was achieved under UV-light irradiation (254&#xa0;nm) at initial TC concentration of 10&#xa0;mg/L, pH 7, and temperature 45&#xa0;°C. The enhanced performance is attributed to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects of the recovered gold and the high-surface-area interfacial contact provided by the PUF matrix. Kinetic studies indicate that there is a biphasic removal process, which is triggered by a surface-adsorption step that is followed by a pseudo-second-order photocatalytic process. The structural stability and interfacial strength of the nanocomposite were confirmed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), which detected no measurable gold leaching in the reaction medium over multiple regeneration cycles. This work introduces the plasmonic photocatalyst fabricated through end-to-end dual-waste valorization, demonstrating that the convergence of urban mining and polymer upcycling can yield performance comparable to virgin-material systems while advancing circular economy principles.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>

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Interfacial Engineering of E-waste Recovered Gold on Polyurethane Foam: A study on Structural Stability and UV-Light Driven Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月17日

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  • Tunde Oloriegbe,
  • Hassan Shokry,
  • Amr E. Mansi,
  • Abubakar Ibrahim,
  • Marwa Elkady

摘要

This study examines the interfacial engineering of a novel gold-polyurethane foam (Au-PUF) nanocomposite fabricated through a dual-waste valorization process. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) recovered from electronic waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) were immobilized onto discarded polyurethane foam via a chitosan-mediated crosslinking to produce a structurally stable, floating photocatalyst. The successful immobilization of the AuNPs onto the 3D-interconnected porous network of the foam was confirmed by field-emission characterization (SEM/TEM), FTIR, EDX, and XRD. Response surface methodology (RSM) with a Box-Behnken design was applied to optimize the degradation of tetracycline (TC) as a function of initial TC concentration (10–100 mg/L), solution pH (4–10), and reaction temperature (25–45 °C). The optimum removal efficiency of 79 ± 2% was achieved under UV-light irradiation (254 nm) at initial TC concentration of 10 mg/L, pH 7, and temperature 45 °C. The enhanced performance is attributed to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effects of the recovered gold and the high-surface-area interfacial contact provided by the PUF matrix. Kinetic studies indicate that there is a biphasic removal process, which is triggered by a surface-adsorption step that is followed by a pseudo-second-order photocatalytic process. The structural stability and interfacial strength of the nanocomposite were confirmed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), which detected no measurable gold leaching in the reaction medium over multiple regeneration cycles. This work introduces the plasmonic photocatalyst fabricated through end-to-end dual-waste valorization, demonstrating that the convergence of urban mining and polymer upcycling can yield performance comparable to virgin-material systems while advancing circular economy principles.

Graphical Abstract