LAUSR

In this study, we evaluated the adsorption of gold ions onto sericin and alginate particles chemically crosslinked by proanthocyanidins (SAPAS) in fixed-bed column aiming at establishing a new profitable application for sericin. The effects of feed flow rate and gold inlet concentration on the breakthrough curve behavior were investigated. A breakthrough time of more than 4 and a half days with a removal efficiency of 98.39% (maximum removal capacity of 57.91 mg/g ) was obtained for the breakthrough curve performed at the lowest feed flow rate and gold inlet concentration (0.4 mL/min and 53.18 mg/L, respectively). All breakthrough curves were best described by the Yan et al. model. The two adsorption/desorption cycles performed using thiourea (0.5M)/ hydrochloric acid (0.5M) as eluent resulted in low values of gold recovery percentage (recoveries of 24.98% and 22.6% for the first and second cycle, respectively),which indicated the predominance of chemical interactions between SAPAS and gold. On the other ...