Rice paper can be modified to recover e-waste gold

31 MAY 2026

Researchers have found a way to use rice paper to recover gold from electronic waste.
They modified the starch-based food material using a chemical process called hydrazination, which created a porous structure on the paper that quickly and selectively pulled gold from complex liquids, including dissolved CPU waste.
It works by attracting gold ions and reducing them into solid gold nanoparticles on the paper’s surface.
Finally, the paper can be burnt to retrieve pure metallic gold.