Effective recovery of AuCl4− using D301 resin functionalized with ethylenediamine and thiourea

In this study, two new adsorbents, D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA, were obtained successfully on the basic of chemically modified D301 resin using ethylenediamine and thiourea. The adsorption, recognition and recovery properties of these two adsorbents for AuCl4− were studied through batch method. The experimental results showed that these two adsorbents possess strong adsorption ability and excellent selectivity for AuCl4−, and pH has a great influence on the adsorption capacity in the studied pH range. The maximum adsorption capacity of D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA for AuCl4− reaches 298 and 326 mg·g− 1 at pH of 2, respectively. D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA possess very high selectivity coefficients for AuCl4− and these two adsorbents can be used to recover AuCl4− selectively from gold-bearing chloride solution. The extraction rate of these two adsorbents for AuCl4− could reach 98%. D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA have excellent regeneration property, and the consecutive adsorption-desorption experiments showed that they could be reused almost without any loss in the adsorption capacity.