Recovery of Low-Concentration Tungsten from Acidic Solution Using D318 Macroporous Resin

Abstract

Tungsten is a crucial strategic metal that plays a significant role in various fields, such as the defense industry, fine chemicals, and the preparation of new materials. During the practice of numerous tungsten smelting processes, a large amount of acidic wastewater containing low concentrations of WO3 is generated. The adsorption method, known for its simplicity, effectiveness, and ease of operation, represents the most promising approach for tungsten recovery and is vital for the sustainable development of the tungsten industry. In this study, D318 macroporous resin was used as an adsorbent to investigate its effectiveness in adsorbing WO3 from acidic solutions. Static adsorption experiments revealed that the adsorption capacity of D318 resin for WO3 was 683 mg·g−1. Kinetic analysis indicated that the controlling step for the adsorption of WO3 from acidic solutions by D318 resin was intraparticle diffusion. Thermodynamic analysis demonstrated that the adsorption process was endothermic and could occur spontaneously. By fitting the isothermal adsorption equation, it was found that the Langmuir model was more suitable for describing the adsorption process of WO3 on D318 resin in acidic solutions. The results of dynamic adsorption experiments showed that under optimized conditions, the dynamic adsorption capacity for WO3 was 529 mg·g−1; when using NaOH as the desorbent for cyclic desorption, the desorption rate for WO3 was 98.21%. XPS and SEM-EDS testing and analysis confirmed that D318 macroporous resin exhibited excellent adsorption performance for tungsten in acidic solutions.

Keywords

• D318 macroporous resin
• tungsten
• adsorption capacity
• desorption rate
• kinetic analysis
• thermodynamic analysis