- Acknowledgements: The authors thank ‘Alimentos nutraceuticos La Meza S.A. de C.V.’ for their support in conducting this research; also the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT, México), for the project No. 256943 ‘Fondo de investigación científica básica 2015’, and to the “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FEDER (España)”, through the ‘Proyecto Retos’ NO. CTQ2013‐44789‐R. Luis A. Romero‐Cano thanks the CONACyT (Mexico) for the support received with the grant number 378307. Helena García‐Rosero gratefully thanks COLCIENCIAS (Colombia) for her PhD studies grant.
- Authors: L.A. Romero‐Cano, H. García‐Rosero, M. del Olmo‐Iruela, F. Carrasco‐Marín, L.V. González‐Gutiérrez
- Reference: Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology 94 (2019) 590-599
The modification of an organic matrix as a bio‐template (grapefruit peel) using urea and melamine was carried out to introduce amino groups on its surface and favor Ag(I) adsorption in aqueous solution for metal recovery. Adsorption capacity in batch mode was proportional to the nitrogen content within the adsorbents, the maximum being the one obtained with the adsorbent functionalized with urea, 72.33 mg g−1, which was tested as a fixed bed in a column to evaluate the metal adsorption in a continuous flow model. The adsorption capacity of the fixed bed was 15.14 mg g−1, and its use was proved over three adsorption–desorption cycles. Amino‐functionalized adsorbent achieved a high Ag+ uptake capacity; from the characterization it is proposed that the adsorption mechanism consists in the formation of the complex R‐NH2Ag+ and R‐COOAg.
