Fine-tuning mesoporous adsorbent for simultaneous ultra-trace palladium(II) detection, separation and recovery

•Fine-tuning adsorbent for selective ultra-trace Pd(II) detection and recovery.•Mesoporous adsorbent offered a one-step adsorption operation with high selectivity.•Mesoporous adsorbent exhibited long-term stability with high efficiency.

A simple and sensitive method was applied for determination and extraction of trace level palladium(II) in wastewater by using functionalized mesoporous silica based fine-tuning mesoporous adsorbent. The adsorbent was stable and easy to detect, adsorb and recover Pd(II) ions by charge transfer (intense π–π transition) complexation mechanism. The optimum experimental conditions such as pH, contact time, initial concentration, selectivity and sensitivity, type and amount of eluent for elution and various ionic interferences on detection and sorption were systematically evaluated. The determined maximum sorption capacity was 191.35 mg/g. The proposed method was applied successfully for extraction of Pd(II) in environmental wastewater samples.