Influencing parameters on the electrodeposition of silver from the effluents of mirror industry

Abstract

Silver (Ag) is considered as an ancient and durable precious metal that is used in different ways, due to its specific properties. The diversity of its uses has been meeting a growing worldwide demand that exceeds the Ag amount extracted from earth crust (primary resource), where a large part of this metal has been exploited. Due to its toxicity, environmental pollution resulting from industrial plants, and high economic value, Ag recovery from industrial plants (second resource) has become increasingly important for scientists. In this study, we focused on Ag recovery from the effluents of mirror industry. This was done by Ag electrodeposition on an aluminum (Al) electrode surface. This work aimed to study the effect of current intensity (CI), electrolysis time (ET), voltage (V) and temperature (T) parameters on Ag electrodeposition, in order to optimize them. According to the obtained results, the optimal parameters were a CI of 4 A, during an ET of 30 min, at 12.5 V, with a maximum T of 30 ºC. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses showed a multilayer rich Ag deposit on the Al surface, followed by a cluster of flowers of different sizes originated from reduced Ag0