Use of Water-Compatible Polystyrene-Polyglycidol Resins for the Separation and Recovery of Dissolved Precious Metal Salts

The use of polystyrene-polyglycidol (PS/PG) water-compatible resins for the extraction of the precious metal salts gold(l) cyanide and silver(l) cyanide from aqueous phase was studied. The resins studied include polyglycidol grafted onto a polystyrene core, a thiol version of this base PS/PG resin in which the terminal hydroxyl groups are replaced with thiol groups, and a magnetic PS/PG resin. More than 99% of the gold and silver ions of the original solutions could be extracted using the resins, and reverse extraction of the loaded metal ions from the resins was performed. Thus, recycling of the resins was possible and no deterioration in extraction performance of the reused materials was observed. The attractiveness of these resins in water purification is augmented by the fact that the PS/PG resins examined can be easily synthesized from inexpensive commodity chemical starting materials.