Silver production from spent zinc-silver oxide batteries via leaching–cementation technique

Abstract

Silver recovery from a spent submarine battery was investigated. The effect of different parameters including nitric acid concentration, temperature, solid to liquid ratio (w/v%) and time was studied and results revealed that recovery increased by increasing acid concentration, temperature (up to 55°C) and solid to liquid ratio (up to 40 g/L). Recovery of silver could reach 99.99% under optimum conditions and the activation energy was found to be 22.84 KJ/mol. Moreover, the effect of Cu/Ag ratio (w %), time, pH and temperature on the precipitation of silver from PLS was studied by surface response methodology (RSM).