TY - JOUR
T1 - Recovery of gold(III) by alfalfa biomass and binding characterization
using X-ray microfluoresence
AU - Gardea-Torresdey, JL
AU - Tiemann, KJ
AU - Gamez Goytia, Gerardo
AU - Dokken, K
AU - Pingitore, NE
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - There is a need for the development of a system that can extract gold
from solutions without the use of hazardous chemicals. A biorecovery
system using alfalfa biomass may be the answer for the recovery of
gold(III) from aqueous solutions in an environmentally friendly manner.
Batch laboratory experiments indicate that alfalfa binds gold(III)
quickly and in a pH-independent manner. Gold(III) binding capacity
experiments performed with the alfalfa roots and shoots have shown the
following capacities: 40 mg gold per gram of shoot tissues; 19 mg gold
per gram of root tissues. We were able to recover up to 99% of the
bound gold metal by treatment with 0.2 M acidic thiourea. Surprisingly,
we discovered that the bound gold turned purple in color, indicating
that gold(III) could have been reduced to gold(0). In addition, column
experiments were performed with silica-immobilized alfalfa to determine
the gold(III) binding ability under flow conditions. XRMF analysis
corroborated the presence o
AB - There is a need for the development of a system that can extract gold
from solutions without the use of hazardous chemicals. A biorecovery
system using alfalfa biomass may be the answer for the recovery of
gold(III) from aqueous solutions in an environmentally friendly manner.
Batch laboratory experiments indicate that alfalfa binds gold(III)
quickly and in a pH-independent manner. Gold(III) binding capacity
experiments performed with the alfalfa roots and shoots have shown the
following capacities: 40 mg gold per gram of shoot tissues; 19 mg gold
per gram of root tissues. We were able to recover up to 99% of the
bound gold metal by treatment with 0.2 M acidic thiourea. Surprisingly,
we discovered that the bound gold turned purple in color, indicating
that gold(III) could have been reduced to gold(0). In addition, column
experiments were performed with silica-immobilized alfalfa to determine
the gold(III) binding ability under flow conditions. XRMF analysis
corroborated the presence o
M3 - Article
SP - U7-93
JO - Advances in Environmental Research
JF - Advances in Environmental Research
SN - 1093-0191
ER -