US1128316A - Anode for electrolysis. - Google Patents

Description

NOAK vroron HYBINETTE,

0F GHRISTIANIA, NORWAY, ASSIGNOR '10 PACIFIC SECURITIES COMPANY LIMITED, OF TORONTO, CANADA.

- ANODE FOR ELECTROLYSIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 16, 1915.

No Drawing. Originalapplication filed June-5, 1912, Serial No. 701.780. Divided and this application filed June 26, 1913. 'Serial No. 775,956. g

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NoAK VICTOR HY- nmn'r'rn, a subject of the King of Norway, residing at Christiania, Norway,'have invented Improvements in Anodes for Eleotrolysis, of which the following is a specification, and is a division of my application, Serial No. 701,780, filed June 5, 1912.

This invention has for its object a process of separating copper from nickel.

In a patent granted 'to me in U. S. A. November 28th 1905 under No. 805,969, I describe a process of refining-copper-nickel matte. The matte is roasted and. eventually leached to remove a possible excess of copper and the roasted material, whether leached or not, is smelted and cast into anodes or metallic slabs. The anodes are electrolyzedin acid nickel sulfate solution,

whereupon copper is cemented out from the electrolyzed solution upon metallic slabs. My patent above referred to, prescribes that at leastpart of the material should be free from carbon,.silicon and sulfur.

I have found that it is entirely too expensive to reduce, smelt and cast a slab practically free from sulfur, carbon and silicon, as proposed in my patent above referred to. I have found that smelting of such an anode is only possible in a reverberatory furnace and in such a furnace the re-' duction of oxid to metal'is hard to accomplish. On the other hand such reduction is made automatically by blast furnace smelting. The alloy of 3 parts nickel and 1 part copper is howevertoo hard to be smelted in a blast furnace and cast into anode slabs directly from the furnace. To accomplish this, I introduce about4-8 sulfur in the anode which is added to the roasted and leached matte in the shape of unroasted 1 matte. In case the proportion of copper is low in the raw material no'leaching is done and an incomplete roasting leaves the necessary sulfur in the material. v

The cementation of copper from the electrolyte is under ordinary conditions impracticable with a metalslab containing 48 sulfur. alloy free from sulfur carbon and silicon (as in my old patent above referred to).,

I preferred tocarry out the last part of thecast surface Even when usinga. copper nlckel' cementation on pure nickel. I have now found that the cementatlon is possible and can be carried to completion in one operation by the use of slabs containing'48% previously used as anodes in a nickel plating tank and thereby the surface prepared in such a way that the cementation will take place. IVhy the cementation will take place under these conditions and not on a fresh depends probably thereupon that when ,a fresh surface is subjected to cementation there is formed a coherent sheet of metallic copper which partly at least prevents further cementation, Whereas a surface previously used as anode in an electrolytic bath'has a porous surface covered by slimes of metal and sulfids whereby the copper is cemented on top. of these slimes and comes down as a spongy mass through which the The spongy mass on solution can percolate.

contact with the'surface stands in metallic the solid partof the slab and may also be said to help the cementation simply by the larger surface which it presents.

hat I claim is 1'. An anode. for the cementation of copper, which consists mainly of nickel, copper and sulfur, the sulfur content being high, said anode having an electrolytically treated surface.

2. An anode for the cementation of copper, which consists mainly of nickel, cop er and between four and eight per cent. sul ur', and has an electrolytically treated surface.

3. The method of making anodes for copper cementation, ing a charge of copper nickel matte containing sulfur to the reducing action of a blast in a suitable furnace, and proportioning Saidcharge to obtain a product containing from four to eight per cent. of sulfur,

casting the. product into slabs and surface treating the slabs by electrolysi s Signed at London, England, this Qthday which comprises subject-