• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.658-665
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• 2006

The removal characteristics of silver ion from waste photographic solution have been investigated by recovering silver electrochemically. Cyclic voltammetry for synthetic and actual wastewater which containing silver ion was investigated to understand its electrochemical behavior. For both synthetic and actual wastewater, the recovery of silver according to the electrowinning time was observed to be increased as the applied potential was raised. In addition, the applicable potential for the electrowinning of silver was found to be lower for synthetic wastewater compared with actual wastewater. As the temperature was increased, more silver was recovered for both wastewater, which indicated the electrowinning reaction was endothermic. The electrowinned silver was refined electrochemically to increase its purity and the variation of the purity of silver was examined according to the electrorefining potential.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.201-206
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• 2019

In this study, we performed an electrowinning process for effective removal of metals (Cu and Ni) in solution and their recovery as solid forms. A complete removal of Cu and Ni (1,000 mg/L) was observed during four times recycling test, indicating that our electrowinning system can ensure the efficient metal removal with high stability and durability. In addition, we investigated effect of operation parameters (i.e., concentration of boric acid only for Ni, variation of pH, concentration of electrolyte ($H_2SO_4$), and cell voltage) on the efficiency of metal removal (Cu and Ni) during the electrowinning. The addition of boric acid significantly enhanced removal efficiency of Ni as the concentration of boric acid increased up to 10 g/L. Compared to negligible pH effect (pH 1, 2, and 4) on the Cu removal, we observed the increase in removal efficiency of Ni as the pH increased from 1 to 4. The electrolyte concentration did not significantly influence the removal of Cu and Ni in this study. We also obtained great removal rates of Cu and Ni at 2.5 V and 4.0 V, which were much faster than those at lower voltages. Finally, almost 99% of each Cu and Ni (1,000 mg/L) was selectively removed from the mixture of metals by adjusting pH and addition of boric acid after the completion of Cu removal. The findings in this study can provide a fundamental knowledge about effect of important parameters on the efficiency of metal recovery during the electrowinning.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.59-66
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• 2022

To investigate the rate-determining step of nickel, cobalt and copper electrowinning, experiments were conducted by varying the electrolyte temperature and agitation speed using a rotating disc electrode. Analyzing the rate-determining step by calculating the activation energy in the electrowinning process, it was found that nickel electrowinning is controlled by a mixed mechanism (partly by chemical reaction and partly by mass transport), cobalt is controlled by chemical reaction, and copper is controlled by mass transfer. Electrowinning of nickel, cobalt and copper was performed by varying the electrolyte temperature and agitation speed, and the comparison of the current efficiencies was used the determine the rate-determining step.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.646-653
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• 2019

Recovery of valuable metals in the industrial wastewater and sludge has attracted an attention owing to limited metallic resources in the earth. In this study, we firstly fabricated Ti/Ir-Ru electrodes by spin coating technique for effective recovery of Cu in electrowinning process. Two different Ti/Ir-Ru electrodes were fabricated using 100 and 500 mM of precursors (i.e., Ir-Ru). SEM-EDX and AFM revealed that Ir and Ru were homogenously distributed on the surface of Ti plate by the spin coating, in particular the electrode prepared by 500 mM showed distinct boundary line between Ir-Ru layer and Ti substrate. XRD, XPS, and cyclic voltammetry also revealed that characteristics of IrO₂, RuO₂, and TiO₂ and its electrocatalytic property increased as the concentration of coating precursor increased. Finally, we carried out Cu recovery experiments using two Ti/Ir-Ru as anodes in electrowinning process, showing that both anodes showed a complete removal of Cu (1 and 10 g/L) within 6 h reaction, but much higher kinetic rate constant was obtained by the anode prepared by 500 mM. The findings in this study can provide a fundamental knowledge for surface characteristics of Ti/Ir-Ru electrode prepared by spin coating method and its potential feasibility for effective electrowinning process.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.11
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• pp.1014-1020
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• 2010

In order to improve the purity on deposit in cobalt electrowining, a fundamental study using Pulse-Reverse Current (PRC) was carried out. Based on a sulfate solution, Cu, Ni, and Fe as impurities were added during cobalt electrowinning. There were four reverse waveforms and frequency conditions from 1 Hz to 10 kHz, and the purity of each condition was compared with the Direct Current (DC) purity. From the results, it was found that the anodic potential induced by reverse current affects selective dissolution of impurities. In this work, the case of the highest reverse peak current density ($I_r$) with a short reverse time ($t_r$) at 100 Hz showed a higher purity than that of the DC. This PRC condition also showed only a 4% low current efficiency comparable to the DC. We concluded that an optimized PRC for cobalt electrowinning could improve the purity with little loss of current efficiency.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.641-646
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• 2015

In this paper, a zinc electrowinning cell is fully optimized to achieve a uniform current distribution at electrode surfaces. To effectively deal with an electromagnetically coupled problem with multi-dimensional design variables, a sampling-based sensitivity approach is combined with a highly tuned multiphysics simulation model. The model involves the interrelation between electrochemical reactions and electromagnetic phenomena so as to predict accurate current distributions in the electrowinning cell. In the sampling-based sensitivity approach, Kriging-based surrogate models are generated in a local window, and accordingly their sensitivity values are extracted. Such unique design strategy facilitates optimizing very complicated multiphysics and multi-dimensional design problems. Finally, ten design variables deciding the electrolytic cell structure are optimized, and then the uniformity of current distribution in the optimized cell is examined through the comparison with existing cell designs.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.759-765
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• 2000

A study on the separation of Zr metal from $LiF-BeF_2-ZrF_4$ (67-27-6 mol%) molten salt was carried out using electrowinning. The decomposition potentials of the $LiF-BeF_2$ (72-28 mol%) and the $LiF-BeF_2-ZrF_4$ (67-27-6 mol%) molten salts were measured to be -1.55 and -1.35 volt, respectively. The Zr separation voltage from the salt were found to be in a range of -1.4 -1.5 volt. As increasing applied current, the deposition of molten salt on a cathode increases but the current efficiency decreases. In addition, the deposition and current efficiency decreases with increasing temperature.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.61-68
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• 2017

Cyclone electrowinning method was used to recover tin to metal in hydrochloric acid solution. The effects of flow rate, current density, tin concentration, and hydrochloric acid concentration on the electrowinning of tin were investigated. As the flow rate increased and the concentration of tin and hydrochloric acid decreased, the tin recovery and current efficiency increased. As the current density increased, the recovery rate increased but the current efficiency decreased. Tin can be effectively recovered at flow rates of 18 L/min., $3A/dm^2$, 2.5 g/L Sn, and 5 wt.% HCl.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.73-73
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• 2017

Pyroprocessing at KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute) consists of pretreatment, electroreduction, electrorefining and electrowinning. SFR (Sodium Fast Reactor) fuel is prepared from the electrowinning process which is composed of LCC (Liquid Cadmium Process) and Cd distillation et al. LCC is an electrochemical process to obtain actinides from spent fuel. In order to recover actinides inert anodes such as carbon material are used, where chlorine gas ($Cl_2$) evolves on the surface of the carbon material. And, stainless steel (SUS) crucible should be installed in large-scale electrowinning system. Therefore, the effect of chlorine on the SUS material needs to be studied. LiCl-KCl-$UCl_3$-$NdCl_3$-$CeCl_3$-$LaCl_3$-$YCl_3$ salt was contained in 2 kinds of electrolytic crucible having an inner diameter of 5cm, made of an insulated alumina and an SUS, respectively. And, three kinds of electrodes such as cathode, anode, reference were used for the electrochemical experiments. Both solid tungsten (W) and LCC were used as cathodes. Cd of 45 g as the cathode material was contained in alumina crucibles for the deposition experiments, where the crucible has an inner diameter of 3 cm. Glassy carbon rod with the diameter of 0.3 cm was employed as an anode, where shroud was not used for the anode. A pyrex tube containing LiCl-KCl-1mol% AgCl and silver (Ag) wire having a diameter of 0.1cm was used as a reference electrode. Electrodeposition experiments were conducted at $500^{\circ}C$ at the current densities of $50{\sim}100mA/cm^2$. In conclusion, Fe ions were produced in the salt during the electrodeposition by the reaction of chlorine evolved from the anode and Fe of the SUS crucible and thereby LCC system using SUS crucible showed very low current efficiencies compared with the system using the insulated alumina crucible. Anode shroud needs to be installed around the glassy carbon not to influence surrounding SUS material.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.42-48
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• 2016

A research for the recovery of the metal with high purity from the waste tin plating solution was carried out. First, tin plating waste solution was tested to remove the organic substances and metallic impurities such as Fe, Zn, Na etc. using ion exchange resin having iminodiacetic functional groups (Lewatit TP 207). Second, the tin solution was purified to obtain the high purity tin solution using ion exchange resin having ethylhexyl-phosphate functional groups (Lewatit VPOC 1026). Finally, 99.98% of the high purity of tin metal can be recovered from the purified solution by cyclone type electrowinning method.