En este estudio, se investigaron los efectos interactivos de las variables del proceso: concentración de ácido nítrico, la cantidad de zinc disuelta en la batería y el tiempo de reacción sobre la eficiencia de la disolución de zinc metálico en soluciones de ácido nítrico aplicando la metodología de superficie de respuesta (RSM). Se encontró que la eficiencia de disolución aumentaba al aumentar la concentración de ácido nítrico y el tiempo de reacción y disminuía al hacerlo la cantidad de zinc. Se aplicó el análisis de regresión múltiple a los datos experimentales para observar los efectos interactivos de los parámetros experimentales. Se obtuvo la ecuación polinomial de segundo orden. Las condiciones experimentales óptimas se determinaron mediante el uso del módulo de optimización en el software Design-Expert, y se encontraron diferentes puntos de solución.

In this study, the dissolution kinetics of metallic zinc pieces obtained from waste zinc–carbon batteries was investigated using nitric acid solutions. The effects of the concentration of nitric acid, amount of metallic zinc, reaction temperature and stirring speed on the dissolution process were determined, and a mathematical model to represent the dissolution kinetics was presented. It was observed that the dissolution rate increased with increasing nitric acid concentration, stirring speed and reaction temperature and with decreasing amount of metallic zinc. While the concentration of nitric acid, reaction temperature, stirring speed, amount of zinc, and reaction time were 0.15 M, 30°C, 400 rpm, 0.1 g, and 20 min, respectively, the amount of dissolved zinc was found to be 98.3%. The result of the kinetic analysis showed that the dissolution rate fit to the pseudo‐first order kinetic. The activation energy for the dissolution process was calculated to be 12.89 kJ/mol. It was determined that the dissolution process was controlled by diffusion. Zinc ions in the resulting solution after the dissolution treatment was recovered by precipitation method using sodium bicarbonate solution. It was determined that zinc ions were precipitated as zinc hydroxy‐carbonate compound. Zinc compound obtained was subjected to the calcination treatment, and zinc oxide was produced.