Recovery of copper from dilute cupric sulfate solution by electrodeposition method using boron-doped diamond electrodes
Abstract
The recovery of copper from wastewater is a key issue for environmental and economic aspects. The wastewater treatment containing copper ions has been carried out by various techniques. Among them, the electrodeposition is the “clean” method that is able to achieve the recovery of copper without requiring addition of chemicals and generating sludge or secondary wastes. However, the current efficiency would tend to decrease especially in a dilute solution, because hydrogen evolution and oxygen reduction reaction would occur as competition reaction. In this article, we study on the recovery of copper from dilute cupric sulfate solution as a model wastewater by an electrodeposition method using boron-doped diamond electrodes which have relatively higher hydrogen overpotential. Two types of boron-doped diamond electrodes were prepared with different boron doping level. The boron-doped diamond electrodes could achieve the recovery of copper with higher current efficiency because of inhibiting hydrogen evolution reaction, compared with glassy carbon electrode.
