MM202: Process Metallurgy

MM202: Process Metallurgy (3-1-0) 8 credit

General methods of extraction in Pyrometallurgy - drying, calcination, roasting, smelting, carbothermic and metallothermic reduction,
refining techniques like liquation, distillation, vacuum distillation etc.

Principles of hydro and electrometallurgy with suitable examples

Leaching techniques, leaching solvents, theory of leaching, bacterial leaching, electrochemical nature of leaching, gold and silver
extraction. Pressure leaching, Sherritt - Gorden process for copper, nickel, cobalt ores; solvent extraction, ion exchange.

Electrometallurgy - electrolysis of aqueous solutions and fuses salts, cell design, recovery of metal values by cementation, electro-winning,
electro-refining etc.

Principles and important applications. Extraction of metals from oxides - magnesium and titanium extraction, Bayer’s process, Hall Héroult
process. Extraction of metals from sulphides. Extraction of copper, lead, zinc and nickel.

Reference books:
1. Extraction of Non-ferrous Metals: H.S. Ray, R. Sridhar, K.P. Abraham, Affiliated East-West Press, 2006.
2. Principles of Extractive Metallurgy: Terkel Rosenquist, 2nd Ed., McGraw Hill, 2004.
3. Serynkova; General Metallurgy
4. Theory of Metallurgical Processes: Anton Volsky, 2nd Ed., Mir Publication, 1971.
Text Books:
5. Philipova N.; Theory of Metallurgical Processes, Mir Publication; 1975.
6. Jackson Eric; Hydrometallurgical Extraction; John Wiely & Sons, 1986.
7. Bray J.L.;. Extraction of Non-ferrous Metals; John Wiely & Sons, 1959.
8. Hydrometallurgy: S. Venkatachalam, Narosa Publishing, 1998.
Intro to Mineral processing and raw materials

Concentration
Minerology Comminution Froth flotation
technique

Process Metallurgy

Pyrometallurgy Hydrometallurgy Electrometallurgy

 Metals generally occur in combined states in the form of ores and minerals as
•Oxides: cassiterite (SnO2), cuprite (Cu2O), chromite (Feo Cr2O3), hematite (Fe2O3), pyrolusite (MnO2), rutile (TiO2),
wolframite [Fe(Mn)WO4];
•Sulfides: chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), cinnabar (HgS), galena (PbS), molybdenite (MoS2), pentlandite [(NiFe)9S8], sphalerite
(ZnS), stibnite (Sb2S3);
•Silicates: beryl (3BeO Al2O3 6SiO2), Zircon [Zr(Hf )SiO4];
•Titanate: ilmenite (FeO TiO2); carbonates, for example, azurite [2CuCO3 Cu(OH)2], dolomite (MgCO3 CaCO3), malachite
[CuCO3 Cu(OH)2], magnesite (MgCO3);
•Phosphate: Monazite [Th3(PO4)4]; vanadate, for example, carnotite (K2O 2UO3 V2O5) and so on

As naturally occurring ores and minerals are associated with gangue such as silica, alumina etc., the
first step in the extraction of metals is the removal of gangue from the ore containing the metal value by mineral
beneficiation methods incorporating comminution, preliminary thermal treatment and concentration by
magnetic separation, heavy media separation, jigging, tabling, and flotation.

The extraction methods incorporate various steps to obtain the metal from the concentrate, ore or some mixture, or from
chemically purified minerals
The extraction processes are classified into three main groups, namely:
1. Pyrometallurgical method: Including smelting, converting, and fire refining are carried out at elevated
or high temperatures. A step called roasting or calcination may also be incorporated in the flow sheet in
the treatment of sulfide or carbonate minerals.
2. Hydrometallurgical method: Incorporate leaching of metal values from the ores/minerals into aqueous
solution. The resultant solution is purified before precipitation of the metal by pH and pO2 control,
gaseous reduction, or cementation.
3. Electrometallurgical method: Use electrical energy to decompose the pure mineral that is present in
aqueous solutions or in a mixture of fused salts. If the metal is extracted from the electrolyte using an
insoluble anode the method is called electrowinning. On the other hand if the impure metal (in the
form of the anode) is refined using a suitable electrolyte, the method is known as electrorefining.

Roasting or calcination also forms an important step in the treatment of sulfide and carbonate ores. In the production of
rare metals like uranium, thorium, zirconium and so on, the leach liquor may be purified by fractional crystallization, ion
exchange, and/or solvent extraction techniques.
Extraction of metals is generally speaking a Process of Reduction.
Some energy is required to reduce (i.e. release) the metal present in the compound or in
a solution and collect it in elemental form.
 Basics of Thermodynamics

System and surroundings

System

Open system: Exchange mass and energy with the surroundings

Closed system: Exchange mass and but NOT energy with the surroundings.
Isolated system: NO Exchange of mass and energy with the surroundings

Internal energy (E): It arises from the kinetic and potential energy of the atoms within the system. Kinetic energy arise
from the atomic vibration, translational and rotational energies of the atoms or molecules. Potential energy arise from
the interaction, bonds, b/n the atoms.
First law of thermodynamics: Energy cannot be created and destroyed.

Work(W) could be converted into heat(q) and the spending of fixed amount of
work always resulted in the production of same amount of heat.

ΔE = q - w
The change in internal energy ΔE is equal to the sum of the heat (q) absorbed by
the system and the work done on the system (-w).
• ‘q’ is positive if the system gains energy in the form of heat and
• ‘w’ is positive if the work is done by the system.. The system loses energy as result of doing some form of
work.
• Work can be different form.. includes volume.. i.e, work done againt the external pressure.
• And all other forms of work against external electrical, magnetic fields..
W = wvol + welect + wmag + wsurface
• If the volume work of expansion againt the pressure, work is pdv

ΔE = q - pdv
 Heat content or Enthalpy (H)

qv is the heat absorbed at

For process occurring at constant volume, dv = 0, w = 0..then we get ΔE = qv constant volume.

For a process occurring at constant pressure ‘p’

ΔE = E2 – E1 = qp – w = qp – p(v2-v1)
qp is the heat absorbed at constant
qp = (E2 + pv2) – (E1+ pv1) pressure.

A new function, called Enthalpy or heat content, denoted by H can be defined as… H = E + pv
ΔH = H2 – H1 = qp

Concept of heat content is important because many chemical and metallurgical process carried out at constant pressure
Heat capacity and change of enthalpy with temperature

The specific heat is the quantity of heat (in J) required to raise the temperature of the substance by 1 Kelvin. At
constant pressure this is denoted by cp and is given by

The enthalpy change of chemical reaction can be written as:

ΔH = Hproduct – Hreactant

- reactant
= Cp(product) – Cp(reactant) = ΔCp

By integrating at constant pressure of 1 atm, we obtain the value of ΔH at temp-2 to temp-1.

ΔHT2 – ΔHT1 =
Second law of thermodynamics: Entropy of Isolated system can never decrease and always tends to a
max. value.

Statistical treatment of entropy:

Standard free energy and equilibrium constant:

Ellingham diagram
 Pyrometallurgical process
Pyrometallurgical methods including smelting, converting, and fire refining are carried out at elevated
or high temperatures. A step called roasting or calcination may also be incorporated in the flow sheet in
the treatment of sulfide or carbonate minerals.

Pyrometallurgy can be further classified as:

1) Solid state processing: This does not involve any melting. It is typically carried out in the temperature
range of 500- 1200 C.
• As exemplified by roasting of sulphides, calcination, solid state reduction of metal oxides by H2 and
CO.

2) Liquid state processing: This involves melting of at least metal containing phase and is on the whole
carried out at higher temperature.
• Examples are Blast furnace smelting, steel making, distillation refining of Zinc from impure lead.. Etc.
• Liquid state processing separates out the metal either in pure or in impure form.
• Composition changes in the liquid are possible due to miscibility, rapid diffusion and mixing.
Why Pyrometallurgy?

Pyrometallurgical methods of metal production are usually cheaper and suitable for large scale
productions. Among the many advantageous of pyrometallurgy, the following are special noteworthy.
1. Reaction rates are greatly accelerated at high temperatures. Small units can therefore, achieve high
production rates
2. Some reactions which are not thermodynamically possible at low temperatures becomes possible at
higher temperatures.
3. There is a greater ease of physical separation of the product metal from gangue if the product can be
melted or vapourized at higher temperatures.
Calcination:
It is the thermal treatment of an ore to effect its decomposition and to effect elimination of volatile
products (normally carbon dioxide and /or water). Decomposition of CaCO3 is an example

CaCO3(s) = CaO (s) + CO2 (g)

Roasting:
It involves the heating of ores to below the fusion point in excess of air. It brings about the chemical
conversion and renders the raw materials more suitable for subsequent reduction.
The majority of application includes removal of sulphur or other chemical elements such as arsenic and
tellurium as volatile oxides.

The following are some of the important roasting reactions:

1. Oxidizing roasting: This carried out to burn sulphur from sulphides with conversion
of sulphides in whole or in parts into oxides. For example.
PbS(s) + 3/2O2(g) = PbO(s) + SO2(g)
2. Volatizing roasting: this is done to eliminate volatile oxides such as As2O3,
Sb2O3 and ZnO.
3. Chloridizing roasting: this is carried out to convert certain metal O2
compounds to chlorides from which the metal may be subsequently
obtained by reduction. The reduction of the type
2NaCl(s) + PbS(s) + 2O2(g) = Na2SO4(s) + PbCl2(l)
Smelting:
•Smelting is a process for the production of a metal or a metal-rich
phase such as matte.

•Generally, it refers to reduction of a metal oxide to metal,

•Carbon being by far the most common reducing agent.

•During smelting the gangue is removed as slag with the help of fluxes.
•Carbon occupies a unique position as a reducing agent on account of its easy availability and low cost.
It forms two oxies.. CO and CO2, which are automatically eliminated from the system.
•The CO becomes more stable at higher temperature whereas all metal oxides becomes less stable.
Therefore, theoretically carbon can reduce any metal oxide provided the temperature is sufficiently high.
•The reduction of metal oxide by carbon is represented by equation.

MO(s,l) + C(s) = M(s,l) + CO(g)

M(s,l) + CO(g) = M(s,l) + CO2(g)
The most abundant ore of Fe is Hematite: Fe2O3
Impurities (gangue) in ore : Al2O3, SiO2.. Etc
Charge with reducing agent : Coke
Flux : Lime stone (CaCO3)
-Decomposes into CaO and react with impurities in charge to
produce a liquid phase called Slag, which is discarded.
Several reaction takes place inside furnace.
1. Gasification of carbon,
2C(s) + O2(g) = 2 CO(g)
C(s) + CO2(g) = 2 CO(g)
2. Reduction of iron oxide, the reaction as follows:
3Fe2O3(s)+ CO(g) = 2Fe3O4(s) + CO2(g)
3Fe3O4(s)+ CO(g) = Fe (s) + CO2(g)
FeO(s)+ C(s) = Fe (s,l) + CO(g)
3. Reduction of other oxides such as SiO2, MnO.. Tec
4. Slag formation and other miscellaneous reaction.
 •The hot gases which mainly comprises of CO, CO2 and N2 that escapes from
the top of the blast furnace
•Because of very high temperature, FeO reduced to “Fe” in the lower region
and the liquid metallic product collects at the bottom region of the furnace
known as “ Hearth”.
•Some of the other oxides in the gangue are also reduced at varying degree
and elements so produce may enter the metal phase (2- 3% of the wt of the Fe)
•Iron also dissolves 3.5 – 4.5% of carbon.
•The slag is a solution of oxides.
•For good separation other desirable effect, the slag which mainly consists of
SiO2, Al2O3 and CaO should be of good fluidity.
•It depends on the melting point of the slag and its constituents.
•The melting point of Al2O3 and SiO2 are 2045 and 1781 °C. Addition of basic
oxide such as CaO produces ternary solution with melting point of 1200 ° C.
•The overall reaction in the blast furnace can be:

Iron oxide mineral + gangue + reducing agent (C) + flux + air =

Impure Iron (l) + Slag (l) + Gas (CO, CO2, N2)
Thermic reduction
•Carbothermic reduction: The reduction of metal compounds by Carbon.
•Metallothermic reduction: A compound can also reduced by a metallothermic processing using
metal such as Al, Si as reducing agent. These metals combine with oxygen to produce more stable
oxide.
•The reduction of Fe2O3 by aluminium is the basis of the highly exothermic reaction used in the
joining process called thermit welding. The reaction is

Fe2O3(s) + 2Al(s) = Al2O3(l) + Fe(l)

•Calciothermic reaction : Many oxides can be reduced by calcium also because calcium forms a
stable oxide, CaO. Reactions in such cases would be called Calciothermic reaction
 Thermodynamics terminologies

Gibbs Free energy: Energy of the system is available to go work

Two intersecting line
 Extraction of metals from Sulphide ores
•Non-ferrous metals such as Copper, Lead, Zinc and Nickel are found in nature as sulphide minerals.
•Mineral dressing operation such as flotation to obtain concentrates rich of metal sulphides.
•The Sulphide concentrates are subjected to a pretreatment process of roasting (oxidizing roasting) in the
range of 550 °C to 800 °C.
•During roasting, sulphur is oxidizing to SO2 and sulphides of metal are partly or completely oxidized to
oxides.
•For Pb, sulphide is completely oxidized to PbO.
•For Cu (Chalcopyrite: CuFeS2), Ni (Pentlendite: (Fe,Ni)9S8) ores , only the iron sulphide is completely
oxidized and the remaining sulphide are retained as such.
Metallurgy of Lead:
•Mineral: Galena (PbS), lead ore contains 3 -10% Pb
•Upgraded to 60 – 80% Pb by differential froth flotation
•Roasting with oxygen to convert oxide
•Reduction Blast furnace with coke to form metal lead.

•Blast furnace charge:

Lead sinter (PbO) + coke(10%)+ limestone(5-10%)+ Scrap
iron(1%) +quartz

•Product:
Lead bullion (impure lead) + slag + matte containing
copper + spiess + impurities + gas dust

The slag contains caO+SiO2 + FeO melts below 1200 C.

Metallurgy of Copper: (Chalcopyrite: CuFeS2)
•In principle, it is possible to roast the sulphide ore of copper to oxide and reduce it by Carbon
in the blast furnace. However, since the concentration also contain iron sulphide, Iron oxide will
form.
•In fact, oxidation of copper sulphide does not occur until iron sulphide is fully oxidized yielding
Fe2O3.
•This Fe2O3 is difficult to remove by slagging. Hence blast furnace smelting (reduction) is not
used for extraction.
•Smelting is carried out without any reduntant, with process called Matte smelting
Principle ore: Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2)
Roasting: Iron sulphide partly converted into FeO for subsequent removal by slagging

2CuFeS2(s) + O2(g) = Cu2S(s) + 2FeS(s) + SO2(g)

FeS + 3/2O2(g) = FeO(s) + SO2
The roasted solids are charged into a reverberatory furnace or flash smelting unit along with quartz
(SiO2) which is a flux.

Reverberatory Furnace:
The primary mode of heat transfer is through radiation from the refractory brick walls to the metal,
but convective heat transfer also provides additional heating from the burner to the metal.
 •In reverberatory furnace charge is heated to 1200- 1300 C. iron oxide (FeO) is removed as a slag
containing mainly FeO.SiO2.
•The remaining sulphides melt and collect as matte.
•The Matte is heavier than the slag and , therefore, collects at the bottom with good matte/slag
seperation.
•The liquid matte is tapped out from the reverberatory furnace and charged into a convertor.
•The air blast introduced into the converter brings about rapid oxidation of the matte and consequent
removal of sulphur.
FeS(l) + 3/2O2(g) = FeO + SO2 (g)
Cu2S(l) + 3/2O2(g) = Cu2O + SO2(g)
Cu2(S)(l) + 2Cu2O(l) = 6Cu(l) + SO2(g)

•FeO is separated in a slag phase by addition of SiO2.

•During all these reaction, NO external heat supply is required since the reaction is
highly exothermic.
•Moreover, no reducing agent is required for removal of oxygen from oxide.
•The overall reaction simply corresponds to the oxidation of sulphur and iron.
•This features makes the copper extraction process economical accepted.
 Pierce- Smith copper converter

Air connections
Mouth

Drive for lifting converter

Tuyeres: A nossel through which air is forced into the converter

Extraction f Zinc:

Ore mineral: Sphalerite (ZnS),

In Pyrometallugical method, sulphide is converted to oxide by roasting and then
the oxide is reduced by carbon at about 1200 C.

ZnO(s) + C(s) = Zn(g) + CO(g)

Zinc evolves as a gas under vaccum and is rapidly cooled in a condenser inorder to avoid
the reverse reaction
 Extraction of some reactive metals
Many metals are highly reactive to oxygen and if reduced from the oxide, they are likely to still contain residual oxygen
which adversely affects the mechanical properties. In such case it is advisable to produce the metals from halide.
Thus Titanium, Zirconium, Lithium, Berylium, Tantalum, Niobium and rare earth metals… etc., although they are present
in nature as oxide ores, are often produced via halide route.
Consider the extraction of “Titanium”
Ore: Rutile (TiO2) or ilmenite (FeO. TiO2).
Pure TiO2 is produced by mineral beneficiation.
Oxide is then chlorinated according to the following reactions
TiO2(g) + C(s) + 2Cl2(g) = TiCl4 (g) + CO2(g)

Selective distillation of of crude TiCl4 yields pure TiCl4 which is then reduced at 900 by Magnesium, the process being
known as Kroll’s process.
TiCl4(l) + 2Mg(l) = 2MgCl2(l) + Ti (s)

The metal is crude and require refining.

Refining processes
There are three basic approach for purification of metals. These are as follows:
1. Creation of thermodynamic and kinetics conditions for transfer of impurities away from the metallic
phase during the extraction process itself.
• Example: Creation of proper slag and achieving good slat metal separation.

SLAG

METAL
Methods of purifications
The processes essentially depend on the transfer of impurity element from one phase o another. These
methods can be classified into three basic categories namely
1) Physical methods (involving unit operations)
2) Chemical methods
3) Electrochemical methods (involving unit operations)

1. Physical methods:
In this method, the purpose is to separate parent metal from impurities by unit operations which involve no
chemical reactions. Usually these operations involve the phase changes. Few of the physical methods are
a) Selective distillation of impurities.
b) Liquation
c) Selective dissolution
d) Zone refining
 a) Selective distillation of impurities.

•Species “A” has boiling point TA and “B” has Vapour(V)

TB, Implies on heating “A” vapouizes more easily. TB

Temperature
•When a liquid of composition “X” is heated, V+L
the first vapour has a composition “Y” which is Liquid(L)
higher than “A”.
TA
•The compositon of the vapour and liquid is
depend on the temperature at which they are
A = 80%
equilibrium. However at all temperatures, the B =20%
vapour has highger fraction of species(A) A = 70% A = 40%
Y B =30% B =60% X
compared to that liquid.
A = 80%
A Percent B B
•Therefore, “A” can be preferentially removed B =20%
from “B” by distillation.
Liquid-Vapour equilibrium diagram
•Figure represents the vapour pressure versus temperature curve for metals.
•Volatile metals like “Zn” may be seperated from liquid “Mn” by vaccum distillation.
•Similarly, many minor impurities such as As, Sb,.. Etc,
•Selective removal of volatile impurities under vaccum is capable of yielding products of high purity.
b) Liquation:

•In Liquation, the impurity separates our from the parent metal due to the immiscibility, the efficiency of
separation being dependent upon the nature of the metal- impurity phase diagram.
•This method is based on the difference in melting point and densities of immiscible phases.
•Examples Purification of “Lead” through “Zinc” removal.
•On cooling, impure Lead and Zinc separates out leaving a liquid poorer in Zinc and therefore richer in
Lead”

Pb + Zn cooling Pb rich Zn
b) Selective dissolution:

•As in the earlier, impurity was removed by selective crystallization. One can remove an impurity by
selective dissolution in a solvent metal.
•Example: During refining of lead bullion obtained from lead blast furnace, molten zinc is addded to recover
minor amount of silver contained in the Lead.
•Zinc dissolves silver preferentially and from a a separate phase which is collected and process for silver
recovery,
•This process is called Parke’s process

Add molten Zn
Zn+
Pb + Ag Pb rich Ag
Zone refining technique:

10%
 Zone refining technique:
•Zone refining is generally is employed to produce ultrapure metals.
Semiconductor metals such as Si, Ge, Te, Ga….etc are purified using this
technique.
The principle of zone refining is as follow:
•Consider the phase digram with “A” represents the primary metal with a
small concentration of the impurity. The vertical line “XY” indicates the
initial composition.
•If a liquid of this composition is cooled slowly, then solidification begins
at a temperature corresponds to to “X”. The initial solid has a composition
corresponding to the point “I”. So the solid is purer, with least impurity,
•As the temperature is lowered further, more and more solid seperates,
the final solid formed having the composition corresponding to “Y”. It
should be noted that as the temperature decreases from X to Y, the solids
that crystallize are less and less pure.
•A small molten zone moves through a long charge of impurity material.
The difference in the impurity concentration between the liquid and
crystallized solid lead to segregation of impurities into the moving liquid Fig. Portion of binary phase diagram showing the
zone and corresponding purification of the solidifying material. metal rich end
 Zone refining:

A small molten zone moves through a long charge of impurity

material. The difference in the impurity concentration
between the liquid and crystallized solid lead to segregation
of impurities into the moving liquid zone and corresponding
purification of the solidifying material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAYAe_Oimlo
•Zone refining by passing a single molten zone along a length of solid material is illustrated in figure.
•As the molten zone moves forward, the solid crystallizing at the trailing end is left purer and the molten zone is enriched in the
impurity solute. As the zone tranverse along the length, It is continually enriched in the impurity solute.
•As a result, the impurity profile of the bar after a single pass will be as shown by the bold line in the lower figure,
•The profile changes as shown if the whole process is repeated. Several passes of molten zone would thus yield a bar which is
very pure at one end but impure at the other end.
2. Chemical methods:
•In the chemical methods, the impurity elements are converted into compound by adding refining agents which react
preferentially with these elements.
•The chief agents are Oxygen, Sulphur and Chlorine.
•The compounds are then separated from the metal in the slag, salt, gas phase or as insoluble compounds.
The following industrial refining practices:
1.Oxidation is practice to remove:
i.C, Si, P and Mn from Iron (steel making)
ii.Pb, As, Sb, S, Mg, Al, Fe are from copper
iii.Sb, As, Sn, and Zn from lead
2.Sulphidation is practiced to remove:
i.Cu, Ni and Co from lead
ii.Cu from Tin
3.Chlorination is practiced to remove:
1.Zn from lead
2.Zn, Cu and Pb from bismuth
Steel making:
Steel is purified pig iron with controlled amount of impurities. The
purpose of steel making is not to produce with Iron, but iron purer
than pig iron. The selective oxidation of impurities in pig iron during
steel making reaction may be written as follows:

[C] + 1/2O2(g) = CO(g)

[Si] + O2(g) = (SiO2)
[Mn] + 1/2O2(g) = (MnO)
2[P] + 5/2O2(g) = (P2O5)
Here [C], [Si]. [Mn], [P] denotes the respective impurties dissolved in
iron. While CO escapes as gas, the other oxides formed enters slag
phase, denoted by ().
Refining of metals via intermediate gas phase:
•This is the process of reactive distillation of metals which have high melting point.
•It is practically impossible to distill refractory metals like “Ti” and “Zr”. However, they may be made to
react with gaseous reagent to produce volatile compounds at relatively low temperature.

Metal-Vapour-2 Vapour-1
Vapour-1

Impure metal Pure metal

•This compound are subsequently decomposed by heating or cooling to yield pure metal and
origincal reagent can be recycled.
•The two step process as follows:
•Step 1: Impure metal+ Vapour 1  Vapour 2
•Step-2: Vapour 2  Pure metal + Vapour-1
•The overall reaction is an indirect distillation of metal usually at relatively low temperature, The
process of decomposition of metals from vapours ais generally known as Chemical Vapour Deposition.
•The process has many variations depending on the nature of vapours. Examples
a)Purification of Nickel by carbonly process
Ni(s, impure) + CO(g)  Ni(CO)4 (g, b.t = 43 °C)
NI(CO)4(g)  4 CO(g) + Ni (s, pure)
The Carbonyl formation process is carried out at around 45 C, it is decomposed at 240 ° C.
b) Purification of Zirconium by Iodine process
At 200 C, Zr(s, impure) + 2I2 (g) = ZrI4 (g)
at 1400 C, ZrI4(g) = Zr(s, pure) + 2I2(g)
c) Purification of beryllium:
At 1200 C, Be(s, impure) + 2 NaCl(g) = BeCl2 (g) + 2Na(g)
At 900 C, BeCl2 (g) + 2Na(g) = Be (s, pure) + Nacl (l)

Metal-Vapour-2 Vapour-1
Vapour-1
Impure metal Pure metal
 3. Electrochemical methods:

•Here, the metal to be refined is made the Anode and the

pure metal is deposited on a cathode.
•The starting cathode sheet may be pure strip of the metal
itself or some other metal.
•The electrolyte contains an ionizable salt of the metal.
•A large number of metals are electrorefined in acqueous
electrolytic solutions. Includes: Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Co, Pb, Sb, Bi,
Hg, Sn..etc.

Anodic reaction: Oxidation: Cu  Cu+2 + 2 e

Cathodic reaction: reduction: Cu+2 + 2e  Cu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=7U2mI_JJ0ZU
 Ni in NiSo4

Anodic reaction: Oxidation: NiSo4  Ni+2 +So4-2 +

Cathodic reaction: reduction: