The selective flotation recovery of gold from secondary resources is a sustainable strategy to fill the ever-increasing demand for gold resources, and reduce the environmental pollution. In the present work, a novel method to realize the selective and fast recovery of Au(III) in the flotation process involving the use of thermo-responsive amphiphilic polymer poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-glycidyl methacrylate) (PEG₁₁₃-b-P(NIPAM₁₀₈-co-GMA₆₂)) integrated with rhodamine B thiohydrazide (RBS) affinity ligand was studied. The polymer possessed the selective capture property toward Au(III) salt and excellent adsorption performance on bubble surfaces, driven by specific coordination interactions between Au(III) salt and RBS ligand, and hydrophobic interactions between GMA moieties and bubbles. Flotation using the thermo-responsive polymeric surfactant displayed a high separation efficiency and fast flotation kinetics, achieving a separation efficiency of 85% for Au(III) salt at 28 min, which was comparable with sulfur-functionalized mesoporous materials. This flotation process followed pseudo-second-order kinetics and Freundlich isotherm adsorption model. Furthermore, in flotation recovery of Au(III) salt form actual e-waste leaching solution, separation efficiency of 81% was achieved, while Au grade was improved from 1.55 % to 34.76%. This polymeric surfactant was easily regenerated by the reduction-induced release the bound Au(III) salt and thermal precipitation, leading to retain 81% of separation efficiency after five cycles. This work provides an effective way to fabricate flotation surfactant, which can meet the urgent demand for performance improvement and chemical consumption reduction in practical applications.

从二次资源中选择性浮选回收黄金是一种可持续的策略，可以满足对黄金资源不断增长的需求，减少环境污染。在目前的工作中，一种在浮选过程中实现 Au(III) 选择性快速回收的新方法涉及使用热响应两亲聚合物聚（乙二醇）-b-聚（N-异丙基丙烯酰胺-co-缩水甘油基甲基丙烯酸酯) (PEG ₁₁₃ - b -P(NIPAM ₁₀₈ - co -GMA ₆₂)) 研究了与罗丹明 B 硫代酰肼 (RBS) 亲和配体的整合。由于 Au(III) 盐与 RBS 配体之间的特定配位相互作用以及 GMA 部分与气泡之间的疏水相互作用，该聚合物具有对 Au(III) 盐的选择性捕获性能和在气泡表面的优异吸附性能。使用热响应聚合物表面活性剂的浮选显示出高分离效率和快速浮选动力学，在 28 分钟内实现了 85% 的 Au(III) 盐分离效率，这与硫功能化介孔材料相当。该浮选过程遵循伪二级动力学和 Freundlich 等温吸附模型。此外，在从实际电子垃圾浸出液中浮选回收 Au(III) 盐时，分离效率达到 81%，而 Au 品位从 1.55% 提高到 34.76%。这种聚合物表面活性剂很容易通过还原诱导释放结合的 Au(III) 盐和热沉淀而再生，从而在五个循环后保持 81% 的分离效率。该工作为制备浮选表面活性剂提供了一种有效途径，可满足实际应用中提高性能和降低化学品消耗的迫切需求。