Ferrocene-based metal-organic framework for highly efficient recovery of gold from WEEE

Exploitation of novel materials that show excellent gold recovery selectivity and high adsorption capacity is still a big challenge in recovery of gold from waste electrical & electronic equipment (WEEE). Herein, the redox MOF (FMOF-Co) material was prepared for highly efficient recovery of gold from WEEE. A combination of the redox ligand and the porous structure of FMOF-Co makes it an ideal absorbent with both of an excellent recovery selectivity (adsorption selection ratio of Au/Cu = 160, Au/Ni = 48) and an ultra-high adsorption capacity (1953.7 mg·g−1). Besides, the porous structure and the unique ultra-thin flakes of the FMOF-Co microspheres ensure a fast adsorption equilibrium time (10 min). The adsorption kinetic study and adsorption isotherm indicates a pseudo-second order adsorption kinetic behavior and Langmuir isotherm of the adsorption of gold ions on FMOF-Co. Besides, the iron from the ligand is found to be the most energetically favorable sites for the capture of [AuCl4]− ions with a binding energy of −3.92 eV calculated using DFT, gave this FMOF-Co of great chance as a promising material that might be employed for gold recovery from WEEE.