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Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering

ISSN 2095-0179

ISSN 2095-0187(Online)

CN 11-5981/TQ

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Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.    2017, Vol. 11 Issue (3) : 308-316    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-016-1587-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Electrochemistry during efficient copper recovery from complex electronic waste using ammonia based solutions
Zhi Sun1,2(), Hongbin Cao2, Prakash Venkatesan1, Wei Jin2(), Yanping Xiao3, Jilt Sietsma1, Yongxiang Yang1
1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, TU Delft, 2628 CD Delft, the Netherlands
2. National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
3. Ironmaking Department, R&D, Tata Steel, 1970 CA IJmuiden, the Netherlands
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Abstract

Leaching selectivity during metal recovery from complex electronic waste using a hydrochemical process is always one of the generic issues. It was recently improved by using ammonia-based leaching process, specifically for electronic waste enriched with copper. This research proposes electrodeposition as the subsequent approach to effectively recover copper from the solutions after selective leaching of the electronic waste and focuses on recognising the electrochemical features of copper recovery. The electrochemical reactions were investigated by considering the effects of copper concentration, scan rate and ammonium salts. The diffusion coefficient, charge transfer coefficient and heterogeneous reaction constant of the electrodeposition process were evaluated in accordance with different solution conditions. The results have shown that electrochemical recovery of copper from ammonia-based solution under the conditions of selective electronic waste treatment is charge transfer controlled and provide bases to correlate the kinetic parameters with further optimisation of the selective recovery of metals from electronic waste.
Keywords copper recovery      electronic waste      end-of-life products      selective leaching      electrodeposition     
Corresponding Author(s): Zhi Sun,Wei Jin   
Just Accepted Date: 26 August 2016   Online First Date: 12 September 2016    Issue Date: 23 August 2017
 Cite this article:   
Zhi Sun,Hongbin Cao,Prakash Venkatesan, et al. Electrochemistry during efficient copper recovery from complex electronic waste using ammonia based solutions[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2017, 11(3): 308-316.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-016-1587-x
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2017/V11/I3/308
Fig.1  Schematic plot of the complex electronic waste recycling process
Fig.2  E-pH diagram of copper-ammonia system at 298.15 K and 105 Pa (potential vs.SHE)
Fig.3  Kinetic path of copper ions from bulk to the cathode surface during electrodeposition (the electrical double layer is simplified into one layer—with only one set of kinetics parameters in the layer)
Fig.4  Multiple cyclic voltammograms of copper ammine in an ammonia-ammonium carbonate based solution with copper concentration of 20 g/L (pH= 9.5) recorded on a glassy carbon working electrode at room temperature with a scan rate of 20 mV/s. The insert figure gives the enlarged view of the anodic shoulder
Fig.5  Cyclic voltammograms of copper ammine in ammonia-ammonium carbonate based solutions (pH= 9.5). (a) the effect of scan rate (with the copper concentration of 20 g/L), (b) the effect of copper concentration (at a scan rate of 20 mV/s)
Copper concentration /(g?L −1)
10 20 40 60 80
ln( ipc) /A ?Eb) /V ln( ipc) /A ?Eb)/V ln( ipc) /A ?Eb)/V ln( ipc) /A ?Eb)/V ln( ipc) /A ?Eb)/V
va) /(10−3 V?s−1)
?10		 −7.26 −0.34 −6.46 −0.33 −6.10 −0.27 −5.82 −0.25 −5.76 −0.22
?20 −6.86 −0.37 −6.22 −0.37 −5.82 −0.33 −5.52 −0.3 −5.23 −0.28
?50 −6.48 −0.44 −5.95 −0.42 −5.50 −0.39 −5.19 −0.36 −4.98 −0.34
?100 −6.15 −0.49 −5.72 −0.46 −5.25 −0.44 −4.94 −0.43 −4.71 −0.43
a /10−1 0.89 0.72 0.65 0.63 0.61
k0/(10−4 cm?s−1) 1.39 2.38 2.74 2.89 2.97
ipc/10−4 A
v1/2
?0.10		 −7.05 −15.67 −22.32 −29.61 −36.15
?0.14 −10.48 −19.88 −29.76 −40.07 −53.29
?0.22 −15.31 −26.02 −40.88 −55.97 −68.65
?0.32 −21.29 −32.63 −52.27 −71.19 −90.17
Dc) /(10−6cm2?s−1) 2.79 2.52 2.25 2.09 1.99
Tab.1  Correlation between the cathodic peak current and the peak potential
Fig.6  Effect of copper concentration in ammonia-ammonium carbonate solutions on the charge transfer coefficient and transfer rate constant (the lines are B-spline fitting against the experimental data)
Fig.7  Effect of copper concentration on the diffusion coefficient of copper ammine complex at pH 9.5 and a comparison with the reported data for diluted solutions [15] (red-literature and black-current experiments)
Fig.8  Effect of ammonia salts on the charge transfer rate constant
Fig.9  SEM Morphology and XRD pattern of the electrodeposited copper (current density of 250 A/m2, 40 g/L copper in ammonia-ammonium carbonate solution)
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