Core–Shell Structured Fe3O4@CuS for Effective Gold Capture and Recovery

Abstract

Gold is a valuable commodity with numerous industrial and technological applications. Traditional adsorbents for gold adsorption using activated carbon or ion exchange adsorption resin are limited by low capacity and selectivity. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces a core–shell structured magnetic adsorbent, Fe3O4@CuS, which can capture and recover gold through in situ reduction. The resulting gold-loaded adsorbent can be easily separated using an external magnet, offering significant advantages such as high efficiency, ease of operation, low cost, low materials consumption, and low waste generation. Results show that this adsorbent has a gold loading capacity of 407 mg/g within 4 h, and the maximum capacity can reach up to 558.7 mg/g. Moreover, this magnetic adsorbent exhibited good selectivity for gold in the presence of other base metals. This research shows the feasibility of using Fe3O4@CuS for efficient gold recovery and provides insights into its adsorption behavior and mechanism.