Membranes bearing intrinsic chelating sites at the liquid interface can enable high-density adsorption, yet links between surface complexation and mass transport remain underquantified. Here, polythiosemicarbazide membranes are fabricated by phase inversion into asymmetric porous films for silver recovery and Ag+ uptake is evaluated in batch and pressure-driven filtration. Batch data follow a pseudo-second-order model, consistent with coordination-controlled adsorption. With only three equilibrium points (n = 3), the data are consistent with a Freundlich-type trend over the tested window, but isotherm discrimination is not claimed as definitive. Early time uptake and Weber–Morris/Boyd analyses indicate a shift from film-diffusion control to a slower intrapore regime. Under acidic conditions, PTSC reaches 1045 mg g–1 uptake at 500 ppm Ag+. During filtration, the same chemistry rapidly captures Ag+ from 10 ppm feeds with 90–96% selectivity, consistent with boundary-layer suppression under convective flow. Adsorbed silver is eluted with 0.1 M thiourea, enabling multicycle reuse without capacity loss.
Aburabie et al. (Fri,) studied this question.