Recovery of Pd(II), Pt(IV), and Rh(III) Using Polyelectrolytes

Two methods, precipitation and ultrafiltration, were applied in order to recover platinum group metals(PGM) by complexing them with water-soluble polyelectrolytes, e.g., polyethyleneimine [PEl], poly(2-vinylpyridine) [2-PVP], poly (4-vinylpyridine) [4-PVP], and poly (styrene sulfonic acid) [PSSA]. In the precipitation method, the PGM-polyelectrolyte complex that was formed by mixing first with polybase, e.g.,4-PVP at pH 1 was precipitated by further mixing with polyacid, e.g., PSSA. However, the recovery of PGM obtained by this method was not quantitative(less than 70%). The "sandwiching" binding between the metal anions and two polyelectrolytes was examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS). The XPS studies indicated that the PGM atom was bound with the acdic and basic polyelectrolyte via its oxygen and nitrogen atom, respectively. The recovery of PGM using polyelectrolyte was further studied by ultrafiltration methods as follows : The PGM ions, eomplexed at pH 1 with polyelectrolyte, allowed the applicntion of membrane filtration by virtue of the great differences in molecular weights between PGM and other low molecular weight species. By applying this method, Pd and Pt (ca. $10^{-4}M$) were selectively separated almost quantitatively from coexisting metal ions, e.g., $Cu^{2+}$ and $Ni^{2+}$. The EPR spectra and viscosity measurements indicated that these polyelectrlytes were not bound to $Cu^{2+}$ and $Ni^{2+}$ ions at this pH, which provided the basis for selective separation of PGM(Pd, Pt and Rh) from these coexisting ions.