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The Use of Antimony Trioxide in Copper Electrolyte Purification and Its Subsequent Regeneration: An Experimental and Mechanistic Study

  • Metallurgy of Nonferrous Metals
  • Published:
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Abstract

The removal of As, Sb, and Bi impurities from copper electrolyte is a primary objective of copper electrorefineries. The present experimental work demonstrates that the presence of Sb2O3 facilitates efficient and fast removal these impurities (with removal rates of 38.50, 98.50, and 99.00% for As, Sb, and Bi) through the formation of antimonate (AsSbO4/Sb2O4/BiSbO4), which plays a critical role in the self-purification of copper electrolyte. However, the antimonate which is a valuable metallurgical by-product contained high contents of As and Sb. The thermal decomposition of the antimonate was characterized by TG/DTA, a new method was proposed for recovering the target components, As, Sb, Bi, and to regenerate Sb2O3 with a two-stage roasting process under argon atmosphere. According to the results of XRD, SEM-EDS and ICP-MS, AsSbO4 decomposed during the first stage roasting at 800°C over 2 h, affording As with a recovery rate of 98.80%. During the second stage, decomposition of BiSbO4 and Sb2O4 at 1200°C over 2 h resulted in 99.01, 95.14% recovery rates for Sb, Bi.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Engineering and Research, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, 341000, China

    Jin-Liang Wang & Hua-Zhou Hu

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  1. Jin-Liang Wang
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  2. Hua-Zhou Hu
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Correspondence to Jin-Liang Wang.

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Wang, JL., Hu, HZ. The Use of Antimony Trioxide in Copper Electrolyte Purification and Its Subsequent Regeneration: An Experimental and Mechanistic Study. Russ. J. Non-ferrous Metals 59, 237–249 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821218030161

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S1067821218030161

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