Removal of impurities from copper electrolyte with adsorbent containing antimony

A new adsorbent was synthesized with antimony oxide and barium sulfate to be used in the purification of copper electrolyte. The adsorbent possesses not only the properties of common adsorbents, but also special merits of its own. It can adsorb antimony from copper electrolyte, which then becomes adsorbent itself after regeneration; so the more the use-times, the more the amount of the adsorbent. Under the conditions of fixed contents of Cu and H(2)SO(4) in copper electrolyte, the adsorbent can adsorb 90% of Bi, 80% of Sb, as well as parts of As. The paper presents the results of adsorbent synthesis, characterization, regeneration, and metal ion separation. The feasibility of utilizing this adsorbent for copper electrolyte purification has been examined. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.