Highly effective recovery of palladium from a spent catalyst by an acid- and oxidation-resistant electrospun fibers as a sorbent

Palladium is not only a precious metal but also is widely used in catalyst production, therefore it is of significance to recover palladium from spent catalysts. In this paper, Nanofiber modified by 2-Thionicotinic acid (TN-Nanofiber) featuring acid- and oxidation-resistant was fabricated through electrospinning and chemical grafting, which can trap efficiently Pd(II) ions from the extremely acidic and oxidizing systems derived from the leaching of spent catalyst. The adsorption kinetic data of Pd(II) ions was well described by the pseudo-second-order model, and the times required to reach equilibrium was 60 min. The Langmuir isotherm model provided better fitting for the Pd(II) ions adsorption, and the maximum uptake capacity of TN-Nanofiber was evaluated as 348.4 mg/g for Pd(II) ions. Furthermore, the column adsorption experiments proved the feasibility of TN-Nanofiber separation of Pd(II) ions from the spent catalyst. Investigation of the adsorption mechanism demonstrated a planar quadrilateral coordination pattern between the Pd(II) ions and the adsorption sites of TN-Nanofiber, which includes one N and one S atom sourced from the adsorption sites and two Cl atoms derived from the original PdCl42−. In summary, TN-Nanofiber may serve as the next generation of emerging adsorbents to recover palladium from the strongly acidic and oxidizing systems due to its excellent performance.