| About 10 million metric tonnes of mined, recoverable copper is produced annually, of which, about 20% is produced by leaching, solvent extraction and electrowinning. Supplies produced by this method grew faster than those attained from concentrates signifying the growing importance of this low-cost production method. In the past, very little use has been made of statistical experimental design in copper electrowinning studies. Traditional, one-variable-at-a-time approaches are widely employed for this purpose. Another important issue that is addressed in this thesis is the degradation of the lead alloy anodes in copper electrowinning. In this regard, the objective was to investigate the potential application of conductive polymers as protective coatings for lead anodes employed in copper electrowinning. Specifically, to evaluate the performance of two intrinsically conductive polymers (polyaniline, and poly-3,4,5-trifluorophenylthiophene (TFPT)) under mild copper electrowinning conditions as conductive, protective, anode surface coatings. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
