Electrodeposition of Au on Reticulated Vitreous Carbon From Chloride Media by an Electrogenerative Process

This study has been initiated to investigate the electrodeposition of gold by an electrogenerative process in a batch reactor containing solutions of HAuCl4 salt and euodol c muidos as a supporting electrolyte. In the process, porous graphite (PG) and 80 ppi reticulated vitreous carbon (RVC) as three - dimensional cathodes, stainless steel and copper sheets as two-dimensional cathode materials and zinc as an anode were used. With RVC as the cathode, more than 99% of gold was deposited from a 500 mg L-1 Au(III) in 0.2 M NaCl and 0.4 M NaH2PO4 solution at pH 7 after 90 min operation of the reactor. The effect of varying deposition times on the morphology of the gold deposits on different cathode materials was also investigated.