Abstract
Alkali agents could be used to enhance the extraction of zinc from solution of high concentration, but excess alkali can sensitively lead to emulsification of the solution. In this paper, the emulsification in the extraction process, demulsification, and extraction with different additives and its action mechanism were studied. The results indicate that the associated addition of alkali and organic acid could eliminate emulsification and improve zinc extraction. The extraction ratio of zinc reached 99.61% under the conditions of 104 mL/L organic acid, 80 g/L alkali, and 40% extractant concentration. Zinc hydroxide formed from hydroxyl and zinc ion at sensitively increased pH was the cause of emulsification during extraction. Associated addition of alkali and organic acid could contribute to the control solution pH in the range of 3.0–4.0, which is lower than that of the formation of zinc hydroxide, and therefore, improve zinc extraction.
Highlights
Metals 2021, 11, 1833. https://As an important separation method that is widely applied in many industries such as petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and hydrometallurgical, solvent extraction has quite a few favourable advantages for separation and recovery of valuable metals from solutions [1,2,3].it is commonly used for separating and concentrating for metals such as zinc, copper, nickel, cobalt, uranium, and other metal ions [4]
The effect of zinc concentration on zinc extraction with D2EHPA extractant was studied under the conditions of 20% D2EHPA, pH 3.0, O/A ratio 50:50, 1000 rpm, and
Emulsification was from zinc solution of Emulsification was apt aptto tooccur occurininzinc zincextraction extractionwith withD2EHPA
Summary
As an important separation method that is widely applied in many industries such as petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and hydrometallurgical, solvent extraction has quite a few favourable advantages for separation and recovery of valuable metals from solutions [1,2,3]. It is commonly used for separating and concentrating for metals such as zinc, copper, nickel, cobalt, uranium, and other metal ions [4]. The general reaction for the extraction by an organophosphorus acid is displayed in Equation (1)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
