中国有色金属学报(英文版)
Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China
| Vol. 34 No. 3 March 2024 |
（1. School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China;
2. National & Regional Joint Engineering Research Center of Nonferrous Metal Resource Recycling, Changsha 410083, China）
Abstract: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.
Key words: gallium; cyclone electrowinning; GaAs waste; current efficiency
