The use of new modified activated carbon in thiosulfate solution: A green gold recovery technology

A clean and effective activated carbon modification method aimed at the cleaner production of gold using activated carbon was investigated in this paper. Activated carbon rich in nitrogen and sulfur (H-AC) was synthesized by a clean and simple method. The gold adsorption performance of H-AC was investigated by adsorption experiment, in which a gold adsorption capacity of 25.8 kg/t was achieved on H-AC. The materials were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDS and XPS, the results identified that the activated carbon’s modification and the gold adsorption on H-AC were successful. Furthermore, the adsorption of Au(S2O3)23− on H-AC may be a ligand interchange mechanism. Last, it was found that about 87.6% of gold could be stripped from H-AC-Au containing gold 2.0 kg/t via elution. This study reported a new effective activated carbon related gold recovery method in non-cyanide clean thiosulfate system, which is of great significance to the cleaner production of gold.