Silver recovery methods and silver products produced thereby

摘要

Described herein are methods of recovering silver from solution to produce metallic (i.e., elemental) silver. These methods generally include a step of providing a silver-containing aqueous solution that includes cationic silver species, followed by a step of forming a reaction solution that includes an organic acid, a buffering agent, and the cationic silver species, and a step of generating a reaction product that includes metallic silver by reducing the concentration of the cationic silver species in the reaction solution. Also described herein are metallic or elemental silver produced by these methods.

主权项

1. A method for treating a silver-containing solution, the method comprising:
providing a silver-containing aqueous solution comprising cationic silver species; disposing an organic acid and a buffering agent in the silver-containing aqueous solution to form a reaction solution comprising a concentration of the organic acid, a concentration of the buffering agent, and a concentration of the cationic silver species, wherein the concentration of the organic acid is equimolar to or in a stoichiometric excess of the concentration of the cationic silver species, and wherein the buffering agent comprises citric acid and at least one of sodium phosphate dibasic and sodium phosphate monobasic; and generating a reaction product comprising metallic silver, thereby reducing the concentration of the cationic silver species in the reaction solution, wherein the metallic silver is precipitated from the solution.