Keywords: Ammonium sulphate, copper(II) recovery, electrogenerative process, reticulated vitreous carbon, static batch cell

Abstract

The influence of different types of sulphate salts towards the performance of copper(II) recovery via an electrogenerative process was investigated in this study. Here, the electrogenerative process was based on the use of a batch cell with reticulated vitreous carbon and zinc plate as the cathode and anode, respectively. The anolytes used in this study were ammonium sulphate, sodium sulphate and potassium sulphate. While the catholyte used was copper(II) sulphate. Results showed that ammonium sulphate with a concentration of 0.5 M was the most suitable anolyte to fully recover 100 mg L-1 initial copper(II) sulphate within three hours of operation. Ammonium sulphate has a higher mobility as compared to other salts. Type of electrolyte, size of ion and solubility are strongly implicated in determining its mobility. Thus, it provided a better recovery rate of copper(II) in this electrogenerative process. Finally, The recovery of copper(II) was evaluated by using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS).