A project involving the University of Nottingham, which is looking to find a plant-based alternative for the recovery of gold, silver, and copper nanoparticles from mining waste, has received £375,000 in funding.
Researchers will combine a plant-based technique called phytomining, where plants absorb metal ions through their roots, with an advanced biotechnological approach to retrieve the resulting metal nanoparticles from the waste.
Using native UK plants to retrieve metal nanoparticles such as gold, silver and copper from mine tailings taken from Cononish Mine in Scotland, the team will investigate the potential of using the waste for conversion into biogas or other value-added bioproducts.
Led by Scotland's Rural College, the University of Nottingham's Jon McKechnie will support alongside the universities of York and Edinburgh, as well as Scotgold Resources and Promethean Particles.
Metallic nanoparticles have a wide range of current and emerging applications. This project aims to identify efficient routes to their manufacture from mining wastes, at low cost and with minimal environmental impact.
The project aims to generate unprecedented knowledge about using phytomining to produce biogenic nanoparticles from metal-rich waste, facilitating a first-time assessment of their potential in a range of sectors, such as industrial, environmental and biomedical.
Dr Luis Novo, lead researcher and an SRUC Challenge Research Fellow, said: "The ever-growing build-up of mine waste across the planet constitutes an opportunity for the recovery of residual metals of technological significance.
There has been increased interest in biogenic NPs due to advantages over chemically synthesized NPs. In this light, producing NPs via phytomining heralds great promise as it would represent a low-cost, eco-friendly and carbon-neutral strategy to farm nanoparticles from residues.
The research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), following a call for projects that offer biotechnological solutions to reduce environmental impact in either the textile industry or recovery of technology-relevant metals.
