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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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Electrowinning of Silver From Copper in sulfuric Acid

I'm a student and in my chemistry class we are designing a plant to recover copper with trace amounts of silver and gold. We use sulfuric acid in the leaching process which dissolves both the copper and silver. I was wondering if it would be possible to electrowin the silver from this type of solution. If it is, any additional information such as the temperature, voltage, current, etc. needed to accomplish this would be greatly appreciated as well.

Adam Krasinski
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2001

Hi Adam

Did you ever get the answer for your Silver EW question? I would like to get the reply. Thank you.

Dale Wilson
- Yunnan, China
2007

Hi, Adam.

Copper and silver are so close on the electrochemical potential scale that this probably would not work. You might look up the Nernst equation to put numbers on the difficulty. How about precipitating the silver out with chloride. Silver chloride is pretty insoluble whereas copper chloride is highly soluble.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
April 5, 2011

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