Selective adsorption of precious metals from hydrochloric acid solutions using porous carbon prepared from barley straw and rice husk

Porous carbon was prepared by carbonization from agro-waste such as rice husk and barley straw to evaluate the adsorption of precious and base metals from metal solutions. The effects of hydrochloric acid concentration, metal ion concentration, and contact time on adsorption were examined. Rice husk carbon was found to be highly selective for Au(III) and inert to Pt(IV), Pd(II) and other base metals. Barley straw carbon adsorbed these three precious metal ions, but was inert to base metal ions such as Cu(II), Fe(III) and Ni(II). The maximum adsorption capacity of rice husk carbon for Au(III) was 0.76 mol/kg and the maximum adsorption capacity of barley straw carbon for Au(III), Pt(IV) and Pd(II) was 1.47, 0.39 and 0.64 mol/kg. respectively. The effectiveness of recovery of precious metals from industrial solution was also tested and barley straw carbon was found to be highly efficient and selective for the targeted metal ions in the presence of excess of other metal ions. Rice husk and barley straw carbon are thus potential alternatives to commercially available activated carbon as they have high selectivity and are efficient with low production costs. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.