Development of Copper Nanoparticles from E-waste for Biomedical Applications

TLDR: In this article, the synthesis of copper nanoparticles from E-waste which is having copper metal content present in it is described and the XRD result shows that the elemental copper is present in the obtained powder and it is found that the average crystallite size is around 27.6 nm.

Abstract: Today’s society is technology dependent. As a result, there is a massive intensification in the production of electronic waste (E-waste) which has reusable and recyclable parts. Waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs) are the type of E-wastes where recycling approach can be applied. This paper describes the synthesis of copper nanoparticles from E-waste which is having copper metal content present in it. Here we use bioleaching process to obtain copper sulphate from E-waste and chemical reduction is used to synthesize copper nanoparticle from the obtained copper sulphate. The XRD result shows that the elemental Copper is present in the obtained powder and it is found that the average crystallite size is around 27.6 nm. The SEM and EDX results clearly indicate that presence of copper and copper oxide. Copper nanoparticles have several applications which include biomedical field like drug delivery system, detection of dopamine, amino acids, etc. They also find applications in the preparation of disinfectant for waste water, used as nanometal lubricant additives, sintering additives, and capacitor materials, used in metal and non-ferrous metal superficial conductive coating process. They offer appropriate catalytic potential and dye reduction properties.