Polymer Inclusion Membrane with Addition of Graphene Oxide as an Adsorbent for Gold Adsorption from Acidic Solution. Issue 1 (1st November 2022) - Husna, S M
Abstract : In industry, cyanide leaching was popular method used nowadays as an alternative technique replacing the ancient method known as amalgamation for gold recovery. Amalgamation required the usage of toxic mercury which led to the hazardousness towards environment. Nevertheless, the percentage of gold extracted via carbon adsorption in cyanide leaching method exhibited some drawbacks including low effectiveness and slow adsorption rate. Thus, application of polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) with addition of graphene oxide (GO) as adsorbent has been studied to evaluate the efficiency of PIMs for gold recovery from acidic solution. PIMs was formulated using 50 wt% of poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexa-fluoropropylene) (PVDF-co-HFP) as base polymer, 40 wt% of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as carrier, 10 wt% of dioctylphthalate (DOP) as plasticizer and different composition of GO. The FTIR result for the membrane show a slightly difference between before and after the diffusion. The experimental result also shows the decrement of gold concentration from 100 ppm to 2.64 ppm in feeding solution suggesting gold was successfully being adsorbed into the membrane. The result of SEM-EDS also revealed the presence of gold in 1.5 wt% GO-PIMs membrane. Hence, the advancement in membrane technology with presence of GO as an adsorbent shows the ability to adsorb the gold with high efficiency as the replacement towards conventional industrial carbon adsorption methods.