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The Adsorption of Silver on Powdered Activated Carbon in the Ammonia-Free Thiosulfate Leaching Solution

  • METALLURGY OF RARE AND NOBLE METALS
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Abstract

The ammonia-free thiosulfate extraction of silver can produce silver-copper polymetallic thiosulfate complex in leaching solution. Advanced processes for the recovery of silver in the leaching solution include adsorption, resin, or solvent extraction processes. In this work, the ability of powdered activated carbon (PAC) to adsorb silver in the ammonia-free thiosulfate solution was systematically studied at varying PAC mass (0.5–2.5 g), pH (6.04–11.66), silver concentration (500–1000 mg/L), thiosulfate concentration (0.01–0.1 mol/L), coexisting copper concentration (0–300 mg/L), temperature (298–318 K), and adsorption time (0–360 min). The adsorbent was well characterised by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicate that more than 92% of Ag(I) could be recovered over a wide pH range, and the adsorption capacity increased with adsorption temperature, reaching a maximum of 42 mg/g-PAC. Analysis of the adsorption isotherm and kinetics parameters indicate that the adsorption of Ag(I) on PAC is with Freundlich isotherm, and the adsorption follows pseudo-second order kinetics.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by Doctoral Scientific Research Foundation of Henan University of Science and Technology (Grant no. 400213480089), Postdoctoral Scientific Research Foundation of Henan University of Science and Technology (Grant no. 400213554022) and The Key Scientific Research Project of Colleges and Universities in Henan Province (Grant no. 21A450001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, 471023, Luoyang, China

    Chao Han, Jiwen Li & Chuntao Zhang

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Nonferrous Metals Henan Province, 471023, Luoyang, China

    Chao Han & Jiwen Li

  3. Research Center for High Purity Materials, Henan University of Science and Technology, 471023, Luoyang, China

    Chao Han & Guangxin Wang

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  1. Chao Han
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Correspondence to Chao Han.

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Han, C., Li, J., Wang, G. et al. The Adsorption of Silver on Powdered Activated Carbon in the Ammonia-Free Thiosulfate Leaching Solution. Russ. J. Non-ferrous Metals 62, 165–173 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821221020061

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