Innovative electrochemical processing was proposed in this paper to remove residual copper from carbon saturated iron melt. A direct current electric field was applied to treat the copper-bearing molten iron with molten sulfide flux between a cathode immersed in the sulfide flux and an anode immersed in the molten iron, and a better decopperization effect was achieved with the action of the electric field. Including the copper removal ratio increased to 94%, the distribution ratio of copper between the sulfide and iron increased by about four times, and the sulfur content in the iron melt was decreased by about 50%. Electrochemical tests were carried out to study the reasons for those effects. The results indicated that the electrodeposition of Cu+ on the cathode promotes the mass transfer of Cu from iron melt to molten sulfide, and the excess S2− in the iron melt was oxidized to volatile sulfur on the anode. The molten sulfide has been widely concerned in pyrometallurgy for its potential to remove copper from iron-based melts, and this study verified that molten sulfide could also be used as an electrolyte for electrorefining of iron-based melts.
The mechanism of removal of Cu from carbon saturated iron with FeS-based agents is investigated at 1350°C. The Na 2 S in the FeS-based agents plays an important role, including fixing FeS, limiting its dissolution into molten iron, and absorbing fixed products during decopperization treatment. The optimal copper removal rate in 15 min is 95.1% when the Na 2 S-FeS slag with X FeS /X Na2S = 6/4 is used, and the sulphur content can be controlled at about 0.032 wt-% when the Na 2 S-FeS slag with X FeS /X Na2S = 2/8 is used. Then the copper removal mechanism of FeS-based decopperization agents in carbon saturated molten iron is studied by investigating the non-metallic inclusions in the process samples and crucible samples collected in the experiments using different agents. And the detection and analysis methods ICP-AES, SEM-EDS, XRD are used.
In this paper, the feasibility of electrolysis of Cu 2 S and FeS in sulfur-containing carbon saturated iron melt aided by liquid lead cathode is studied by cyclic voltammetry and potentiostatic electrolysis at 1300 °C. The Cu 2 S and FeS are electro-reduced on the lead cathode and the product copper dissolve into the liquid lead while the product iron dissolves into iron melt due to the difference of solubility. An insert graphite rod in iron melt was used as the anode, on which the S 2− is oxidized to S. This finding provides a new way for refining sulfide impurities in iron-based melt.
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