Abstract:The adsorption behavior of silver thiosulfate on activated carbon was studied. Effects of concentration of sodium thiosulfate and sodium sulfite, temperature, and pH value on adsorption behavior of silver thiosulfate on activated carbon were investigated. Various kinetic models were used to fit the adsorption process, and the mechanism was characterized by XPS and FT-IR detection methods. The results show that the adsorption kinetics of silver thiosulfate on activated carbon conforms to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption isotherms of activated carbon to silver thiosulfate fit to Freundlich model. The adsorption capacity of silver on activated carbon drops slightly with the increase of temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity of activated carbon to silver thiosulfate complex is 18 mg/g under the optimal conditions including temperature of 25 ℃, initial pH value of 8, initial silver concentration of 500 mg/L, n(Na2S2O3)/n(AgNO3)=8 (molar ratio), n(Na2S2O3)/n(Na2SO3)=5 (molar ratio), and adsorption time of 5 h.