Internet Pictures Live Broadcast: On Renren Network, the exhibition company posted a total of 19 photos, 13 of which were close-ups of small golden beads. From the first picture of two CPUs to the fourth picture "the mysterious potion appears," and then to the seventh picture "4 golden beads, one was accidentally blown away by my sneeze...", the pictures live broadcasted the process of netizen "Lao Wu" extracting small golden beads using CPUs. Finally, "Lao Wu" excitedly posted the results of his analysis and identification of three golden beads using the school's spectrometry equipment, stating "The ICP-AES analysis of the three golden beads is over 99.99%, no impurity peaks of other elements." On Renren Network and Sina Weibo, a more detailed and intuitive set of pictures clearly demonstrated "Lao Wu's fierce thiourea gold extraction technique."
Operations require professional guidance: "Lao Wu" is actually a senior student in the Chemistry Department of Nankai University, named Li Dianwu. When asked why he thought of the "thiourea gold extraction method," "Lao Wu" said his idea was simple - he felt it was too wasteful to sell electronic products as scrap by weight. In extracurricular social practice, "Lao Wu" once provided technical guidance to a scrap collection company, where he came into contact with many methods for recycling precious metals. Regarding this experiment, "Lao Wu" emphasized repeatedly that this method is non-toxic, high-purity, low-cost, and the technology is already very mature, not the so-called "aqua regia method." "Lao Wu" said he completed the experiment in mid-November, "This experiment can be completed in just one day."
In response, a chemistry PhD told reporters that from a procedural perspective, this method is feasible in laboratory operations. However, if you want to refer to this method for experimentation, there should be experienced chemists providing guidance, and environmental protection must be taken seriously.
Extracting 4 small golden beads from 5 CPU units:
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Extracting gold from waste, this is not a myth! A senior student from the Chemistry Institute of Nankai University managed to extract gold from old computer CPUs. Recently, a set of pictures titled "Lao Wu's effortless CPU gold extraction" has been circulating online, drawing gasps of admiration from netizens.
"Lao Wu's" "thiourea gold extraction method" consists of ten steps. The first step is instrument preparation, requiring beakers, glass rods, muffle furnaces, etc.; the second step is reagent preparation, i.e., thiourea, sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, etc.; the third step is CPU preparation, "the gold content of CPUs varies, but older 486, 586 computers have relatively sufficient gold content"; the fourth step is soaking, washing the CPU with clear water first to remove thermal silicon grease, etc., then submerging the CPU in water, adjusting the pH value of dilute sulfuric acid to around 1.5, adding 5 ml of 30% hydrogen peroxide, and 1 gram of thiourea (preferably made into a solution), the order cannot be reversed; the fifth step is activated carbon adsorption; the sixth step is high-temperature heating, the temperature must not be lower than 1000°C, after the activated carbon is completely oxidized by high-temperature air, what remains is an alloy of gold, silver, and copper; the seventh step is boiling the alloy with distilled water and pure nitric acid, filtering directly, rinsing repeatedly with water, and crude gold will appear; the eighth step is purification, taking about an hour; the ninth and tenth steps are melting the gold using a muffle furnace and detecting the purity of the gold with instruments.
Netizen Doubts:
Chemistry PhD:
Ten Steps
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Senior Student's "Fierce Gold Extraction Method"
"Lao Wu" said that he ultimately extracted 4 small golden beads from 5 CPUs using this method, losing one accidentally.
Too High Cost and Environmental Pollution
Regarding "Lao Wu's" alchemy, although many netizens marveled at finding a "path to wealth," some questioned the effort and time required, while others worried about the high cost and environmental pollution of "crude methods," because "the metal content in today's CPUs is less than before, and in the end, you don't make much money anyway."
The refined gold is pictured, provided by Nankai University student Li Dianwu.