Bioleaching-assisted palladium (Pd) recovery from various sources and its application in biomedical purposes: a mini-overview

Platinum group of metals (PGMs) are extensively used in numerous arenas as they have discrete physical and chemical properties. Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Ruthenium, Iridium, and Osmium are the precise metals that have high catalytic activities, significant electrical conductivity, and high corrosion resistance. Based on the conventional technologies to recover platinum group of metals, several methodologies have been suggestively enhanced. Due to the lack of primary sources and the increased economic value of these precise metals such as Palladium, it is crucial to recover these metals from different secondary resources, like, spent automotive catalytic converters, waste electronic and electrical instruments, used batteries, various low-grade ores, etc. Compared with traditional separation processes, the bioleaching technology with varying parametric conditions has rewards in terms of significance for the recovery of palladium from diverse secondary sources, thereby emphasizing its potential in biomedical applications.