45046

Extracting nickel in metallic form from an alloy [Iran] 

May 9, 2007

Hello,
Due to relatively high price of nickel, I'm intrested in extracting nickel from an industrial waste alloy which accounts for 17.7% of it's total weight.the base of this alloy is copper and trace amount of other elements is present. my questions include:
1. is there a specific acidic solution which dissolves nickel but not copper or vice versa?
2. if not, by decomposing the alloy with concentrated nitric acid which method is proper for nickel extraction? WATTs nickel bath, electroless nickel plating, sulfide formation-reduction with respect to huge amounts of copper ions that do interfere in electroplating of nickel or sulfide generation.

Hooman Jackub Nejad
student - Isfahan city, Isfahan, Iran

If the metal is an alloy,it is homogeneous and you would have to dissolve all of the metal. Now you have a solution of the metal ions which are very hard to separate.
Sell your metal for scrap as recovery will cost you more than you will get back for it.

James Watts
- FL