Precipitation precious metals

History, Use and/or Medical Implications Not known to be pathogenic. One industrial application utilizes Trichoderma.PenciHium and Cladosporiumto precipitate precious metals such as gold and platinum from solutions. The process is being patented. 

Precipitation can also occur upon chemical reaction between the impurity and a precipitating agent to form a compound insoluble in the molten metal. The refining of cmde lead is an example of this process. Most copper is removed as a copper dross upon cooling of the molten metal, but the removal of the residual copper is achieved by adding sulfur to precipitate copper sulfide. The precious metals are separated by adding zinc to Hquid lead to form soHd intermetaHic compounds of zinc with gold and silver (Parkes process). The precious metals can then be recovered by further treatment (see Lead). 

Metals less noble than copper, such as iron, nickel, and lead, dissolve from the anode. The lead precipitates as lead sulfate in the slimes. Other impurities such as arsenic, antimony, and bismuth remain partiy as insoluble compounds in the slimes and partiy as soluble complexes in the electrolyte. Precious metals, such as gold and silver, remain as metals in the anode slimes. The bulk of the slimes consist of particles of copper falling from the anode, and insoluble sulfides, selenides, or teUurides. These slimes are processed further for the recovery of the various constituents. Metals less noble than copper do not deposit but accumulate in solution. This requires periodic purification of the electrolyte to remove nickel sulfate, arsenic, and other impurities. 

Selenium and precious metals can be removed selectively from the chlorination Hquor by reduction with sulfur dioxide. However, conditions of acidity, temperature, and a rate of reduction must be carefliUy controlled to avoid the formation of selenium monochloride, which reacts with elemental selenium already generated to form a tar-like substance. This tar gradually hardens to form an intractable mass which must be chipped from the reactor. Under proper conditions of precipitation, a selenium/precious metals product substantially free of other impurities can be obtained. Selenium can be recovered in a pure state by vacuum distillation, leaving behind a precious metals residue. 

Determination of copper as copper(I) thiocyanate Discussion. This is an excellent method, since most thiocyanates of other metals are soluble. Separation may thus be effected from bismuth, cadmium, arsenic, antimony, tin, iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and zinc. The addition of 2-3 g of tartaric acid is desirable for the prevention of hydrolysis when bismuth, antimony, or tin is present. Excessive amounts of ammonium salts or of the thiocyanate precipitant should be absent, as should also oxidising agents the solution should only be slightly acidic, since the solubility of the precipitate increases with decreasing pH. Lead, mercury, the precious metals, selenium, and tellurium interfere and contaminate the precipitate. 

The lanthanide group of elements (Table 11.7) is very difficult to separate by traditional methods because of their similar chemical properties. The techniques originally used, like the precious metals, included laborious multiple fractional recrystallizations and fractional precipitation, both of which required many recycle streams to achieve reasonably pure products. Such techniques were unable to cope with the demands for significant quantities of certain pure compounds required by the electronics industry hence, other separation methods were developed. Resin ion exchange was the first of these... 

Most of the published methods for preparing gold catalysts in small research quantities are unlikely to prove suitable for commercial applications.1 Complete removal of precious metal from the liquid phase is desirable when using solution methods deposition-precipitation (DP) techniques, whilst producing highly active catalysts, also consume large quantities of water and the cost of treatment of wastewater is an expensive additional process. Other preparation methods such as appropriate modifications of impregnation via incipient wetness techniques are more likely to be suitable for commercial production if they lead to reproducible, stable... 

Aqueous solutions of osmium tetroxide are readily reduced by the introduction of practically any metal except those known as the precious metals.3 Thus zinc, silver, mercury, etc., effect the precipitation of metallic osmium from acidulated solutions in a very pure form. In the last-named ease an amalgam is produced from which the osmium is obtained by distilling off the mercury. Ferrous sulphate and stannous chloride4 also reduce the tetroxide solutions, but hydrogen,5 sulphur and selenium 6 appear to have no action under ordinary conditions. Sulphur dioxide reduces the solution to osmium sulphite, whilst potassium iodide reduces it to dioxide with liberation of iodine—a reaction that may be utilised in the volumetric determination of osmium.7... 

In the 1980s, zinc precipitation was replaced by a method involving the passing of the solution over activated carbon to adsorb the precious metals, which are then stripped from the charcoal by a hot caustic solution. Electrowinning removes the precious metals from this solution, depositing them on the cathode. One benefit of this process is that the filtration or deareation steps of the zinc precipitation are not required. Thus the environmental hazard of the zinc salts is eliminated. 

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