Ian Wark Research Institute
ARC Special Research Centre
ARC Special Research Centre
Research Area: Chemistry, colloid and interface science, electrochemistry and nanotechnology
Supervisors: Prof
Thomas Nann, Prof
Jonas Addai-Mensah, A/Prof
Dusan Losic and Prof Bill
Skinner
Description: Value metals such as noble or transition metals (Au,
Cu, Ni, Ag etc.) are conventionally leached from mineral matrices by
irrigation of ground minerals with appropriate lixiviants (acidic or
alkaline leaching solutions). Selective separation and/or purification
of such metals in solutions can be achieved by using customised chemical
reagents (e.g., complexants), special adsorbents and electrochemical
deposition methods suitable for single metal solutions. For
multi-component valuable metal systems, however, these treatment
approaches are either costly (special chemicals required) or
inefficient. To date, a more selective and economically competitive
method for leaching and selective separation and recovery of pure metals
of high value is still lacking for multi-component systems.
We will develop a new, nano-structured material-based electrochemical
approach to separate multi-component value metal solutions. Nano-structured
materials offer many interesting properties that cannot be found in
equivalent bulk materials (mesoscopic properties). We will exploit
mesoscopic properties to realise a nano-structured electrode for the
selective recovery of value metals from leaching solutions
The following methods will be used within this project:
This project is of high industrial value. Therefore, confidentiality and willingness to interact with industry are pre-requisites.
