The effect of cyanide and lead ions on the cementation rate, stoichiometry and morphology of silver in cementation from cyanide solutions with zinc powder

Abstract

The cementation of silver on zinc powder from solutions with a wide concentration range of cyanide has been investigated in the absence and presence of lead ions through stirred reactor batch tests and scanning electron microscopy studies on the cementation product. The concentration of cyanide ions affected the morphology of the product, the nature of cementation reaction and the cementation kinetics. Three cyanide-dependent concentration regimes have been identified: a low cyanide concentration regime in which silver cementation followed an ion-exchange type reaction taking place at the zinc/aqueous solution interface, and the silver deposited around the zinc particle in a uniform growth; a high cyanide concentration regime, as in plant practices, in which the cementation of silver followed an overall chemical reaction involving the evolution of hydrogen and a one-to-one molar silver-to-zinc stoichiometry (In this regime, both the anodic oxidation and the cathodic reduction reactions occurred at distinct interfaces and the silver deposited in a dense-branching morphology.), and an intermediate cyanide concentration regime which is a transition between the two previous regimes. In the low and intermediate regimes, lead and cyanide ions did not affect the morphology of the cemented silver, but increased the silver cementation kinetics owing to Zn(OH) 2 instability. Within the high cyanide concentration regime, lead ions did not appreciably change the cementation kinetics. They modified the pattern of the silver deposit from a dense-branching to a dendritic morphology.