NICKEL EXTRACTION FROM SPENT NI-MH BATTERIES VIA HYDROMETALLURGY

DAIANA M. NAVARRETE; MARCELO ESQUIVEL; MARIO H. RODRIGUEZ

San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca

Congreso; XIV Jornadas Argentinas de Tratamientos de Minerales; 2018

Universidad Nacional de Catamarca

The increase as much in the production of portable electronic devices like in their performance, lead on the one hand to an increase in the consumption of batteries and on the other hand to the more rapid depletion of said reserve charge devices. These situations increase the generation of waste from these devices.The batteries Ni-MH are an important source of materials, including metals that can be recovered. For this reason, in this work, the effect of the operational parameters, (time, temperature, concentration of leaching and reducing agents) on the dissolution reaction rate of the cathodic content from Ni-MH batteries was studied, using as leaching agent acetic acid (H3CCOOH) in reducing medium (H2O2), in order to develop an alternative process, to existing ones, with economic and environmental advantages. The results obtained indicate that the increase in concentrations of H3CCOOH and H2O2, the time and temperature of leaching increase the dissolution of Ni(OH)2 contained in the cathodes of Ni-MH batteries. The conditions of maximum dissolution of the sample, of 83% were: 75°C, 30 minutes, H3CCOOH 6% (v/v) and H2O2 6% (v/v).