Recovery of Nickel by Solvent Extraction from Electroplating Rinse Bath Solution

Abstract

Development of a complete solvent extraction process at the laboratory scale for recovering nickel from nickel electroplating second rinse bath solution (NESRBS) by solvent extraction route using DEHPA and LIX 984N-C dissolved in commercially available kerosene has been investigated. An electrolyte from NESRBS containing,48 g/L nickel, suitable for recycle to the nickel electroplating bath, was generated by 0.5M DEHPA in commercial kerosene at the O/A ratio of 1/5 and 5.00 +/- 0.25 equilibrium pH value with two-stage counter-current extraction. Stripping of loaded organic was done using nickel electroplating first rinse bath solution (16 g/L Ni) with 150 g/L sulfuric acid addition at two-stage counter-current stripping process. LIX 984N-C can also be used for this purpose, but it is not recommended due to a solid stabilized emulsion formation at high equilibrium pH value and nickel concentration. A complete flow sheet of 0.5 M DEHPA extraction process for the recovery of nickel from NESRBS was developed.