Determination of Conditions for Selective Sorption of Silver(I) on Thiocarbamoylated Polyethylene

Sorption properties of thiocarbamoylated polyethylene toward silver(I) from multicomponent solutions have been studied. The synthesized sorbent has been found to exhibit a high sorption capacity and selectivity toward silver ions. In static sorption mode, quantitative extraction is possible from solutions with Ag(I) concentration of 1 × 10^–4 mol/L in pH range from 1 to 7, concomitant Ca(II), Mg(II), Cu(II), Fe(III), Zn(II), Cd(II), Ni(II), Mn(II), Co(II), and Pb(II) have no effect on the recovery degree of silver ions. High sorption selectivity retains under dynamic conditions in the presence of excess amounts of base metal ions at pH 2. Full dynamic sorption capacity for silver is 0.35 mmol/g (solution flow rate 2 mL/min, pH 2, sorbent weight 0.1 g, \(C_{{{\text{Ag}}}}^{ + }\) = 1 × 10^–4 mol/L). The composition of eluents to provide the highest values of silver desorption degree from sorbent surface has been determined. It has been found that the silver capacity of the sorbent slightly decreases after sorption–desorption stage.