A Sustainable Biotechnology Approach for Mineral Separation
Date
2025
Authors
Yang, G.
Liu, Y.
Devkota, S.R.
Hui, Y.
Zhao, R.
Li, Y.
Weitz, D.A.
Zhao, C.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Advanced Functional Materials, 2025; e04992-1-e04992-16
Statement of Responsibility
Guangze Yang, Yun Liu, Shankar Raj Devkota, Yue Hui, Ruilin Zhao, Yang Li, David A. Weitz, Chun-Xia Zhao
Conference Name
Abstract
With increasing demand for metals but declining ore grades and complex mineralogy, current separation technologies are often inefficient in separating valuable minerals from waste due to low selectivity. Herein, a sustainable biotechnology approach is reported for the selective separation of precious metal particles from waste. Using phage display, peptides (PepMin) are designed to target mineral particles with high specificity and affinity. The results demonstrate that PepMin can selectively separate silver particles from silica, a common waste byproduct, achieving over 98% silver purity with a recovery rate of more than 95%. Furthermore, temperature-sensitive proteins incorporating PepMin are engineered for recyclable separation, achieving a high separation factor of 23,000 and a high protein recovery of 97%. When tested with real photovoltaic panel leachate, these proteins achieve a 94.6% silver recovery, illustrating practical utility for complex industrial samples. This approach offers a more efficient and economically viable solution, due to the scalability of protein production, reduced purification costs, and protein recyclability. This work demonstrates a new bioinspired technology for sustainable particle separation with high selectivity, highlighting the great potential of biomolecule-based strategies for mineral particle separation.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
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Description
OnlinePubl
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Rights
© 2025 The Author(s). Advanced Functional Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.