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Silver dissolution in a novel leaching system: Reaction kinetics study

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Abstract

Effective silver recovery is usually restricted by either environmental pollution or high recovery costs. To tackle the issues, this study introduces a novel method for the effective recovery of silver by utilizing the alkaline sodium thiosulfate-potassium ferricyanide leaching system. The reaction kinetics of silver dissolution in this system was investigated via the rotating disk electrode technology. The influences of important parameters, including the rotation speed, sodium thiosulfate concentration, potassium ferricyanide concentration, and temperature, on the silver dissolution rate were systematically investigated. The activation energy was measured to be 17.96 kJ·mol-1 when the silver dissolution was controlled by a diffusion process. When the silver dissolution was in the region of mixed control, the reaction orders of ferricyanide and thiosulfate were found to be 0.57 and 0.19, respectively, and the reaction orders of ferricyanide and thiosulfate were 0.55 and 0.22, respectively, when the silver dissolution was controlled by surface reaction. This study has great potential for the development of an environmentally friendly silver recovery process from end--of-life products.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. ZDRW-ZS-2018-1-2) and the the Material Chemistry and Engineering Group, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Li Xiao, Pei-wei Han, Yong-liang Wang, Guo-yan Fu, Zhi Sun & Shu-feng Ye

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Li Xiao & Guo-yan Fu

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  1. Li Xiao
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  2. Pei-wei Han
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  3. Yong-liang Wang
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  4. Guo-yan Fu
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  5. Zhi Sun
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  6. Shu-feng Ye
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Correspondence to Shu-feng Ye.

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Xiao, L., Han, Pw., Wang, Yl. et al. Silver dissolution in a novel leaching system: Reaction kinetics study. Int J Miner Metall Mater 26, 168–177 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-019-1721-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-019-1721-0

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