Gallium recovery by cyclone electrowinning from alkaline electrolyte with titanium cathode
A process for gallium recovery by cyclone electrowinning was proposed to inhibit concentration polarization and improve current efficiency(CE).The diffusion coefficient of GaO2 in 120 g/L NaOH solution was determined to be 1.65×10-7 cm2/s by electrochemical study.The effect of various parameters on gallium electrowinning was investigated,and the optimum conditions were determined as:titanium cathode,current density of 750 A/m2,gallium concentration of 39.9 g/L,NaOH concentration of 120 g/L,and circulation flow of 200 L/h.Under these conditions,the CE and gallium recovery of electrowinning were 47.9％and 90.2％,respectively.The precipitated gallium can be easily separated from the cathode,and the final purity of gallium after washing was 99.993％.The energy consumption(EC)of gallium cyclone electrowinning was about 9048 kW·h/t.Overall,it is suggested that cyclone electrowinning is a promising process for gallium production with high CE and low EC.
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