The extraction of gold from ores and electronic waste is an important topic worldwide, as this precious metal has immense value in a variety of fields. However, serious environmental pollution and high energy consumption due to the use of toxic oxidation reagents and harsh reaction conditions is a well-known problem in the gold industry. Herein, we report a new chemical method based on the combined use of N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) and pyridine (Py), which has a greatly decreased environmental impact and reagent cost, as well as mild reaction requirements. This method can directly leach Au from gold ore and electronic waste to form Au in water. The process is achieved in a yield of approximately 90 % at room temperature and a nearly neutral pH. The minimum dose of NBS/Py is as low as 10 mm, which exhibits low toxicity towards mammalian cells and animals as well as aquatic creatures. The high leaching selectivity of Au over other metals during gold leaching is demonstrated, showing that this method has great potential for practical industrial application towards the sustainable refining of gold from ores and electronic waste.

Achieving oriented and ordered remineralization on the surface of demineralized dental enamel, thereby restoring the satisfactory mechanical properties approaching those of sound enamel, is still a challenge for dentists. To mimic the natural biomineralization approach for enamel remineralization, the biological process of enamel development proteins, such as amelogenin, was simulated in this study. In this work, carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) conjugated with alendronate (ALN) was applied to stabilize amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) to form CMC/ACP nanoparticles. Sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) functioned as the protease which decompose amelogenin in vivo to degrade the CMC-ALN matrix and generate HAP@ACP core-shell nanoparticles. Finally, when guided by 10 mM glycine (Gly), HAP@ACP nanoparticles can arrange orderly and subsequently transform from an amorphous phase to well-ordered rod-like apatite crystals to achieve oriented and ordered biomimetic remineralization on acid-etched enamel surfaces. This biomimetic remineralization process is achieved through the oriented attachment (OA) of nanoparticles based on non-classical crystallization theory. These results indicate that finding and developing analogues of natural proteins such as amelogenin involved in the biomineralization by natural macromolecular polymers and imitating the process of biomineralization would be an effective strategy for enamel remineralization. Furthermore, this method represents a promising method for the management of early caries in minimal invasive dentistry (MID).

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