Abstract
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to determine the mechanism of adsorption of aurocyanide onto polydiallylamine (PDAA) and the commercially available anion-exchange resins A7 and IRA400. PDAA is known to exhibit unexplained behaviour in Au(CN) 2 − solutions inconsistent with an ion-exchange process. This study has found that aurocyanide adsorbed as an AuCN species rather than Au(CN) 2 − on both the PDAA and also the A7 (weak-base resins) whereas the dicyanide was favoured on the IRA400 (strong base). Elution of the AuCN from PDAA under basic conditions was found to be incomplete, leaving a reduced gold species bound to the polymer accounting for up to 25–30% of the initial adsorbed gold.
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