Chronopotentiometric Studies on the Passivation of Industrial Copper Anode at Varying Current Densities and Electrolyte Concentrations

Abstract

Industrial copper anodes are subjected to chronopotentiometric studies in order to study the passivation effects in the acidic copper sulphate electrolyte solutions. The aim of this investigation is to determine the optimum conditions to recover pure copper from copper alloy scrap by refining electrolysis. The copper anode is actually made from the industrial scrap. The composition of the industrial copper anode is: Cu, 96.66 wt. %, Ag, 2.54 wt. % and Zr, 0.8wt. %. The chronopotentiometric studies are done at current densities of 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.07 A Acm-2 and 60, 100, 140 and 180 gl-1copper sulphate solutions. The tendency of the anode to passivate is high in the applied current densities of 0.06 and 0.07 Acm-2; 100/ 140 gl-1 cooper sulphate concentration in the electrolyte is found to be ideal for copper recovering process.

Keywords

• Chronopotentiometry
• Industrial copper anodes
• Copper recovery: Anode passivation
• Acidic copper sulphate electrolytes