The Purolite™ Resin Periodic Table

Silver is a transition metal with an atomic weight of 47. It is considered a precious metal. Silver occurs naturally in the environment, mainly in the form of its very insoluble and immobile oxides, sulfides and some salts.

Applications
Silver is used in various applications, including catalysis and metals plating. Due to its antibacterial properties, silver can also be used in water treatment applications.

Challenges
Silver, a valuable metal, is found in silver ores. Extracting silver from these ores is difficult. Silver remnants can also be found in chromic acid treatment baths and, if not recycled, can be wasted. In remote areas, some water systems have difficulty using traditional disinfection methods.

Solutions
Ion exchange resin is used in three relevant applications.

Recovery from Chromic Acid Baths

Strong base anion resins can recover silver anionic complexes in plating operations. A high recovery rate is possible even in the presence of high concentrations of competing anions. In high viscosity situations, macroporous strong base anion resins are suggested, but in water-like conditions, a high-capacity gel strong base anion resin performs better.         
               
Silver can be recovered from waste streams with a chelation resin. Purolite™ Puromet™ MTS9100, Purolite Puromet MTS9140PF, and Purolite Puromet MTS9200 show the highest selectivity for silver, even in concentrated brines.

Recovery from Ores

Typical products used for silver leaching from mined ores are Puromet™ MTC1500 and Purolite™ Puromet™ MTC1600.

For more information, visit Hydrometallurgy Products.