Potential Use of Modified Derivative of Chitin and Chitosan on Precious Metal Recovery: A Review

Recovery of metals serves as an attractive approach to gain precious and rarely available metals on earth which are important in industries. For years many methods have been practiced for this recovery such as adsorption, liquid-liquid extraction, or membrane processes. Adsorption provides a beneficial offer compared to others due to its cheap, easy maintenance, and high efficiency. Lately, the focus of adsorption has shifted to the use of bio-sorbent derived from a natural resource, including chitin and chitosan. Chitin and chitosan, which mainly produced from crab and shrimp shell, have been explored for any kind of precious metal recoveries such as platinum, palladium, gold, silver, and others. Various modifications to its structure also have been employed in order to gain more efficient performance. Here we are going to discuss chitin and chitosan along with their engineered and modified form recent advances on precious metal recovery as well as their potential of future research opportunities.