Gold (III) adsorption from dilute waste solutions onto Amberlite XAD7 resin modified with L-glutamic acid

The main purpose of this paper was to obtain a material with efficient adsorbing properties and selectivity, to recover the gold (III) from residual diluted solutions resulted from the electroplating process. In this regard, a material was obtained by physico-chemical functionalization of a chemically inert support with functional groups of nitrogen and carboxyl. As a source of functional groups glutamic acid was used, and Amberlite XAD7 type acrylic resin was used as solid support. In order to establish the mechanism of the adsorption process, kinetic, thermodynamic and equilibrium studies were performed. The maximum adsorption capacity of the material has been established, and a gold (III) recovery process has been proposed using thermal decomposition of the exhausted adsorbed material. Main objective of this study was to evaluate an environmental friendly adsorbent material to recover gold from secondary industrial sources.