2-Mercaptobenzimidazole derivative of chitosan for silver sorption – Contribution of magnetite incorporation and sonication effects on enhanced metal recovery

[Display omitted] •Synthesis of magnetic and non-magnetic mercaptobenzimidazole chitosan derivatives.•Silver sorption is enhanced by sonication in terms of kinetics and thermodynamics.•Selectivity for precious metals vs. base metals, especially in presence of EDTA.•High desorption efficiency and stability of the sorbent at recycling.•Highly efficient recovery of precious metals from acidic leachates of E-waste. The recycling of precious and strategic metals from secondary resources (including E-wastes) is of critical importance for the recovery of scarce metals widely used in High-Tech devices. Therefore, the development of efficient and selective sorbents is of great importance. The grafting of 2-mercaptobenzimidazole onto chitosan microparticles allows developing highly selective sorbents. The incorporation of magnetite particles is also a strategic aspect for facilitating the use and recovery of microparticles. Sonication (at two different frequencies: 37 kHz and 80 kHz) shows high potential for improving both kinetic and thermodynamic aspects associated with silver uptake on 2-MBI-chitosan materials. Sorption capacities as high as 3 mmol Ag g−1 can be obtained with contact times as low as 20–30 min. The sorption isotherms are successfully fitted by the Langmuir and the Sips equations, while the kinetic profiles are modeled using the pseudo-second order rate equation and the resistance to intraparticle diffusion. The sorption process is exothermic: the sonication (and the frequency of sonic generator) strongly changes the thermodynamic parameters. The sonication also speeds up metal desorption, which is highly efficient using acidic thiourea solutions: the sonication allows also reducing the concentration of thiourea in the eluent required for complete silver elution. The sorbent shows remarkable stability is terms or sorption and desorption for five successive recycling runs. The acid leachates of printed circuit board are efficiently treated with the 2-MBI-chitosan sorbent for the recovery, enrichment and separation of precious metals (Ag, Au and Pd) from base metals (major elements: iron copper, aluminum, tin).