ABSTRACT Developing highly efficient and sustainable precious metal recovery technologies is critical for meeting escalating global demand and mitigating the severe environmental impact of conventional metallurgy methods. Here, we report a novel edge‐engineering strategy utilizing amino‐functionalized graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ‐NH 2 ) to achieve unprecedented performance in photocatalytic gold recovery. This material exhibits a state‐of‐the‐art photocatalytic gold recovery capacity of 3819.3 mg g −1 , achieving an efficiency exceeding 99.7%, and ultrahigh selectivity ( K d = 2.97×10 7 mL g −1 ) in complex leachates. Comprehensive multiscale analyses reveal that the engineered −NH 2 sites, upon protonation to −NH 3 + , govern preferential carrier dynamics. This mechanism enables a unique proton‐coupled electron transfer (PCET) pathway that drives the highly efficient reduction of Au(III) and subsequent surface nanocrystal crystallization. To validate practical scalability, the g‐C 3 N 4 ‐NH 2 catalyst was successfully integrated onto a polyurethane foam (PUF) matrix and rigorously tested in a custom, pilot‐scale continuous‐flow photoreactor. This system achieved a 99% gold recovery rate from diverse e‐waste and ore leachates. A detailed techno‐economic analysis confirms the commercial viability of this approach, projecting a 2431.2% return on investment, thereby establishing a scalable photometallurgy paradigm for solar‐driven, highly selective, and sustainable precious metals recovery.
Shangguan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.