Construction of MoS@Activated Alumina Beads as Catalysts for Rapid Gold Recovery from Au(SO) Solution.

Gold recovery from thiosulfate leaching solution Au(SO) is regarded as a tough task because of the low efficiency and complex procedure in current technology, which hindered the industrial application of this eco-friendly technique. In this work, a MoS@activated alumina bead composite (MoS@AA) was constructed through a simple hydrothermal anchoring method and served as a catalyst to recover gold from Au(SO) solution for the first time. The microstructure and chemical component of MoS@AA were systematically analyzed. In addition, batch experiments were carried out to explore the recovery behavior of Au(SO) (concentration: 10 to 200 ppm). Ascribing to the extraordinary optical property of MoS@AA, Au(SO) could be directly reduced to Au by photogenerated electrons and then form a two-phase interface of gold/MoS@AA. As a result, the recovery of Au(SO) can reach up to 98% on MoS@AA, which was much higher than traditional methods. More importantly, the reduced Au could be desorbed from MoS@AA through a supersonic method, achieving one-step Au recovery from Au(SO). This novel strategy used in this research has great significance to the development of Au(SO) recovery in the future.