Selective Recovery of Precious Metals from Acidic Leach Liquor of Circuit Boards of Spent Mobile Phones Using Chemically Modified Persimmon Tannin Gel

Abstract

A tannin-based novel adsorbent, named “BTU-PT gel”, was prepared by immobilizing bisthiourea (BTU) ligand on persimmon tannin (PT) extract. The adsorption behaviors of precious metal ions along with other coexisting base metal ions onto BTU-PT gel were studied by batch and continuous column methods. The gel exhibited remarkable selectivity for precious metal ions such as Au(III), Pd(II), and Pt(IV) over base metal ions such as Cu(II), Fe(III), Ni(II), and Zn(II) in 1–5 mol dm–3 hydrochloric acid. The adsorption of precious metal ions on the present gel was found to obey the typical monolayer type of Langmuir model, and the maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbent was evaluated as 5.18 mol kg–1 for Au(III), 1.80 mol kg–1 for Pd(II), and 0.67 mol kg–1 for Pt(IV). Combination of ion exchange, electrostatic interaction, and coordination through the thiocarbonyl group is the mechanism of adsorption of precious metals on BTU-PT gel. In the case of Au(III) adsorption, the adsorbed species was simultaneously ...