Electrochemical apparatus for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater and extraction method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025122636-A1
Application number	US-202418986713-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 19, 2024
Priority date	May 5, 2023
Publication date	Apr 17, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater and an extraction method using the same. Cu-based chalcogenide, as an electrode material, forms an electrochemical device with other electrodes. The device is an electrocatalytic coupling deionization system with electrochemical oxidative decomplexing performance, and has a good selective removal effect of Cu2+ from organic complex copper-containing wastewater, strongly acidic wastewater, and wastewater interfered by high concentration salt ions and heavy metal ions. With this device, the organic complex pollutant Cu-EDTAn can be effectively decomplexed to complete the extraction of Cu2+.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater, wherein an anode material of the electrochemical device is one of activated carbon, graphite, lead dioxide, BDD and Cu m X 1-a-b Y a Z b ; a cathode material is one of Cu n X 1-c-d Y c Z d and carbon-selenium composite materials, and a cathode and an anode are respectively connected with a power supply to treat the copper-containing wastewater;
wherein 1<m≤2, 1≤n<2 and m>n; 0≤a≤1, 0≤b≤1 and 0≤a+b≤1; 0≤c≤1, 0≤d≤1 and 0≤c+d≤1; X, Y and Z are selected from a group consisting of S, Se and Te.

2 . The electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 1 , wherein the anode material of the electrochemical device is one of activated carbon, graphite, lead dioxide and BDD materials; the cathode material is one of copper selenide, copper selenide sulfide and carbon-selenium composite materials; the anode and the cathode are connected to the power supply and applied with a direct current of 0.6-4.0V, and the device is used for treating acidic electroplating wastewater containing Cu-EDTA.

3 . The electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 2 , wherein the preparation steps of the copper selenide material are as follows:
stirring and dissolving selenium powder in hydrazine hydrate to obtain a mixture A; mixing ethanol with water, adding anhydrous copper chloride for stirring and dissolving to obtain a mixture B; mixing A and B to obtain a mixture C, putting the mixture C into an oven, heating it to 150-200° C. to react for 20 h-30 h to obtain a crude product of copper selenide.

4 . The electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 3 , wherein the molar ratio of the selenium powder to the anhydrous copper chloride is 1:1.

5 . The electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 2 , wherein when the cathode material is copper selenide, the cathode electrode is obtained by the following method:
mixing conductive carbon black and copper selenide material evenly, adding them into a solvent for stirring, adding a binder and continuing to stir until an uniform mixture is obtained; coating the obtained mixture on a graphite paper, drying the coated graphite paper at 60° C. for 24 h, and finally obtaining a cathode electrode with copper selenide as an active material.

6 . The electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 2 , wherein when the anode material is activated carbon, the anode electrode is obtained by the following method: mixing a conductive carbon black and the activated carbon material evenly, then adding them into a solvent for stirring, adding an adhesive and continuing to stir until a mixture is obtained uniformly; coating the obtained mixture on a graphite paper, and drying the coated graphite paper at 60° C. for 24 h to finally obtain an anode electrode.

7 . The electrochemical device for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 1 , wherein the electrochemical device further comprises an anion exchange membrane.

8 . A method for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater, wherein the copper in the copper-containing wastewater is extracted by an electrochemical process using the electrochemical device according to claim 1 .

9 . The method for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 8 , wherein the method comprises the following steps of:
(1) synchronous realization of copper embedding and decoppering processes: use an electrodialysis reactor, with a Cu m X 1-a-b Y a Z b electrode as an anode and a Cu n X 1-c-d Y c Z d electrode as a cathode; separate the anode and the cathode with an anion exchange membrane; add a supporting electrolyte salt solution into an anode chamber, and add copper-containing wastewater to be treated into a cathode chamber; after being energized, a copper-rich electrode is formed at the cathode and a copper-deficient electrode is formed at the anode; a high-concentration copper-containing solution is obtained in the anode chamber, and Cu(II) ions in the copper-containing wastewater in the cathode chamber is selectively adsorbed to the cathode material; and (2) regeneration process: after the reaction in step (1) is completed, switch the positive and negative poles of the power supply to exchange electrodes; replace the solution in the anode chamber after electrode exchange with a fresh supporting electrolyte salt solution, and replace the solution in the cathode chamber after electrode exchange with copper-containing wastewater; electrify the anode again for decoppering and the cathode for copper embedding, so as to extract copper from the copper-containing wastewater and complete the cyclic regeneration of electrodes; wherein 1<m≤2, 1≤n<2 and m>n; 0≤a≤1, 0≤b≤1 and 0≤a+b≤1; 0≤c≤1, 0≤d≤1 and 0≤c+d≤1; X, Y and Z are selected from a group consisting of S, Se and Te.

10 . The method for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 9 , wherein the method comprises the following steps of:
(1) synchronous realization of copper embedding and decoppering processes: use an electrodialysis reactor, with a Cu 2 Se electrode as an anode and a CuSe electrode as a cathode; separate the anode and the cathode with an anion exchange membrane; add a supporting electrolyte salt solution into an anode chamber, and add copper-containing wastewater to be treated into a cathode chamber; after being energized, Cu(II) ions in the copper-containing wastewater of the cathode chamber embed into the cathode material to form a copper-rich Cu 2 Se electrode, and at the same time, Cu 2 Se as an anode active material loses copper (I) ions to become a copper-deficient CuSe electrode; a high-concentration copper-containing solution is obtained in the anode chamber, and Cu(II) ions in the copper-containing wastewater flowing into the cathode chamber will be selectively adsorbed to the cathode material; and (2) regeneration process: after the reaction in step (1) is completed, switch the positive and negative poles of the power supply to exchange electrodes; with a copper-rich Cu 2 Se electrode generated in step (1) as the anode and a copper-deficient CuSe electrode generated in step (1) as the cathode, replace the solution in the anode chamber where the copper-rich Cu 2 Se electrode is located with a fresh supporting electrolyte salt solution, and replace the solution in the cathode chamber where the copper-deficient CuSe electrode is located with copper-containing wastewater; electrify the anode again for decoppering and the cathode for copper embedding, so as to extract copper from the copper-containing wastewater and complete the cyclic regeneration of electrodes.

11 . The method for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 9 , wherein after the step (1) or the step (2) is completed, collect the high-concentration copper-containing solution in the anode chamber and use it after impurity removal for electrolytic refining of blister copper.

12 . The method for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 11 , wherein the concentration of Cu(II) ions in the high-concentration copper-containing solution is above 10,000 mg/L, and the method for impurity removal is electrolysis.

13 . The method for extracting copper from copper-containing wastewater according to claim 9 , wherein in the step (1) and the step (2), the voltage of energization is 0.1V-1.4V, a

Assignees

• Univ Dongguan Technology

Inventors

• Wang Gang
• Wang Shiyong
• Li Changping
• Lv Sihao
• Zhao Lin
• Yang Chen

Classifications

• B01D61/461

  comprising only a single cell, only one anion or cation exchange membrane or one pair of anion and cation membranes · CPC title

• C25C7/04

  Diaphragms; Spacing elements · CPC title

• C25C7/02

  Electrodes (consumable anodes for the refining the metals C25C1/00 - C25C5/00); Connections thereof · CPC title

• C25C7/08

  Separating of deposited metals from the cathode · CPC title

• C25C1/12 Primary

  of copper · CPC title