Construction of Magnetic S-Doped CoWO4 Composite for Efficient and Selective Recovery of Gold from Wastewater via Adsorption-Reduction Pathway

The design and synthesis of efficient adsorbents for the recovery of precious metals from secondary resources are of great environmental and economic significance. Herein, a magnetic sulfur-doped composite CoFe2O4@S-CoWO4 (CF@S-CoWO4) is developed through a hydrothermal synthesis method, which is used to selectively recover gold in aqueous media. Significantly, CF@S-CoWO4 exhibits the best overall performance with gold ions adsorption capacity (Q(max)) and distribution coefficient (K-d) are 1049 mg g(-1) and 4.4 x 10(6) mL g(-1), respectively, which are much higher than those of other gold adsorption materials. The selectivity coefficients (K) toward other metal ions (Pd2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cd2+, Al3+, Li+, Ni+) are also higher, which suggests that CF@S-CoWO4 had a preferential selectivity for Au3+ in coexisting ion solutions. Moreover, the antianion interference of the composite follows the order: SO42- > PO43- > NO3- > CO32-, and it also shows very good reusability with adsorption efficiency at 81.78% after four repeated cycles. Based on characterizations and calculation, it is found that Au(III) mainly undergoes chelation and reduction reactions in the S sites in CF@S-CoWO4, which indicates the important role of S sites. Hence the CF@S-CoWO4 composite demonstrates a promising application for the recycling of gold ions from electronic wastewater.

Automated summary

In this study, a magnetic sulfur-doped composite CoFe2O4@S-CoWO4 (CF@S-CoWO4) was developed and used for the selective recovery of gold in aqueous media. The CF@S-CoWO4 exhibited superior adsorption capacity and selectivity for gold ions compared to other materials. The composite also showed good reusability and demonstrated potential for the recycling of gold ions from electronic wastewater.