A new
chelating resin, polystyrene-2-aminothiazole (PS-AT), was
synthesized via one-step reaction by grafting 2-aminothiazole in a
chloromethylated polystyrene polymer. Its structure was characterized
by elemental analysis and infrared spectroscopy. Batch experiments
were applied to investigate the adsorption properties of PS-AT for
Au(III) ions. The resin exhibits an excellent selectivity for Au(III)
ions in the presence of Ni(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), and Co(II) ions. The
maximum adsorption capacity obtained at 308 K was 733.8 mg/g. The
adsorption kinetic and equilibrium data were well fitted to the pseudo-second-order
model and the Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. Desorption of
gold from the resin can be achieved using 60 mL of 2 mol/L HCl-10%
thiourea solution with a desorption ratio of 93.8%. The XPS data,
along with IR spectra, revealed that gold was adsorbed on the surface
of PS-AT in the form of chloride, and nitrogen and sulfur were involved
in the chelation of gold chloride.