Precious metals are used in many branches of industries. Due to their rarity and diminishing natural resources, more and more new methods are being sought to recover them from secondary sources, which can be electronic waste or spent car exhaust converters. This paper presents the research on the recovery of precious metals from chloride solutions using the Aliquat 336-impregnated Lewatit VP OC 1026 sorbent. The study used a warm impregnation method without toxic solvents, which is beneficial for the environment. The maximal sorption capacities obtained for model solutions in 0.1 M HCl were: 95.6 mg/g for gold, 38.2 mg/g for palladium, and 36.2 mg/g for platinum. There were studied: kinetics and thermodynamics of sorption, as well as amounts of the sorbent, effects of phase contact time and HCl concentration on the sorption of precious metals. Positive values of enthalpy change ΔH° validate that the process is endothermic. The research was also carried out on a real leaching solution obtained by digesting a spent catalytic converter, containing small amounts of platinum group metals. Desorption of precious metal ions was conducted using 1 M thiourea in 1 M hydrochloric acid. The obtained impregnated sorbent proved to be effective for sorption of Au(III), Pd(II), Pt(IV) ions.
Keywords: Aliquat 336; precious metals; recovery; sorption; warm impregnation.
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