Selective Adsorption of Ag(+) on a New Cyanuric-Thiosemicarbazide Chelating Resin with High Capacity from Acid Solutions

A new cyanuric-thiosemicarbazid (TSC-CC) chelating resin was synthesized and employed to selectively adsorb Ag(+) from acid solutions. The effects of acid concentration, initial concentration of Ag(+), contact time and coexisting ions were investigated. The optimal acid concentration was 0.5 mol/L. The adsorption capacity of Ag(+) reached 872.63 mg/g at acid concentration of 0.5 mol/L. The adsorption isotherm was fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model and the kinetic data preferably followed the pseudo-second order model. The chelating resin showed a good selectivity for the Ag(+) adsorption from acid solutions. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to study the adsorption mechanism. The chelating and ionic interaction was mainly adsorption mechanism. The adsorbent presents a great potential in selective recovery Ag(+) from acid solutions due to the advantage of high adsorption capacity and adapting strongly acidic condition. The recyclability indicated that the (TSC-CC) resin had a good stability and can be recycled as a promising agent for removal of Ag(+).