Mining, Minerals Processing and Metallurgical Engineering

Gallium recovery by cyclone electrowinning from alkaline electrolyte with titanium cathode

  • 许志鹏,刘左伟,郭学益,李 栋,邹铭金,田庆华
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  • 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

Online published: 2025-11-04

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.

Cite this article

许志鹏,刘左伟,郭学益,李 栋,邹铭金,田庆华 . Gallium recovery by cyclone electrowinning from alkaline electrolyte with titanium cathode[J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2024 , 34(3) : 1027 -1036 . DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(23)66451-9

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