Pérez de Los Cobos-Pérez Daniel, Mon Marta, Leyva-Pérez Antonio
Instituto de Tecnología Química (UPV-CSIC) Universitat Politècnica de València-Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Avda. de los Naranjos s/n València 46022 Spain.
Glob Chall. 2025 May 8;9(6):2500069. doi: 10.1002/gch2.202500069. eCollection 2025 Jun.
The direct utilization of metals from electronic waste (e-waste) in catalysis is a barely explored concept that, however, should be feasible for reactions where the catalytically active species can be formed in situ from the e-waste metal pieces. This approach circumvents any capture or isolation of particular metals, thus saving additional treatments (extractions, neutralization, separations, washings, …) and valorizing the e-waste in its own. Here, it is shown that a metallic contact (≈1 mg) of a computer´s random-access memory (RAM) catalyzes a variety of organic reactions in high yields. For instance, one RAM contact catalyzes the one-pot esterification-hydration reaction between acyl chlorides, propargyl alcohols, and water, at room temperature in 93-99% yields with turnover frequencies >0.5 million per hour. In this way, >50 kg of organic products could be prepared with just the RAM contacts discarded per year in the Institute´s recycling bin. These results open the way to directly use e-waste in catalysis for organic synthesis.
直接利用电子废弃物（电子垃圾）中的金属进行催化是一个几乎未被探索的概念，然而，对于那些催化活性物种可由电子垃圾金属片原位形成的反应来说应该是可行的。这种方法规避了对特定金属的任何捕获或分离，从而节省了额外的处理步骤（萃取、中和、分离、洗涤等），并使电子垃圾本身得到增值利用。在此，研究表明计算机随机存取存储器（RAM）的金属触点（约1毫克）能以高产率催化多种有机反应。例如，一个RAM触点能在室温下催化酰氯、炔丙醇和水之间的一锅法酯化-水合反应，产率为93%-99%，转换频率每小时大于50万。通过这种方式，仅用该研究所回收箱中每年丢弃的RAM触点就能制备出超过50千克的有机产物。这些结果为在有机合成催化中直接使用电子垃圾开辟了道路。
