Catalytic hydrogen reduction of metals from solutions

摘要

An improved method is provided for efficiently precipitating metal powder selected from the group consisting of nickel, cobalt and copper from aqueous solutions using sulfur-free hydrogen at elevated pressure and temperature, the improvement residing in adding to the solution a small but effective amount of a catalyst as an anti-plating agent, said catalyst comprising an alkali metal or ammonium salt of a copolymer of maleic acid anhydride and an unsaturated branched chain aliphatic olefinic hydrocarbon containing 4 to 10 carbon atoms.