Abstract
Nodulation formation during the electrolytic production of high-purity copper can lead to impurity entrapment and/or increased energy consumption. The rotating cylinder Hull cell (RCHC) was used to study copper nodule formation under mass transport conditions similar to industrial electrolytic copper production. The main advantage of the RCHC is that a wide range of current densities can be produced in a single experiment with well-defined mass transfer conditions. Visible nodule formation was observed at current densities greater than 250 A/m2, which is an iavg/iL ratio of 0.30 for a simulated conventional electrowinning cell. Statistical analysis was also performed using the Weibull distribution to describe the increase in probability of nodule formation with the increase in current density. Introduction of a commercial electrowinning smoothing agent (Hydrostar 10) sharply decreased the total amount of nodulation, but did not eliminate it.
Recommended Citation
J. Bauer and M. S. Moats, "Nodule Formation on Copper Electrodeposits in the Rotating Cylinder Hull Cell," Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B: Process Metallurgy and Materials Processing Science, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 561 - 570, Springer, Feb 2022.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-021-02392-3
Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1073-5615
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2023 Springer, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Feb 2022
