Modelling the physico-chemical effect of silver electrorefining as effect of temperature, free acid, silver, copper and lead concentrations

The study of electrolyte bath properties is essential for the improvement of silver electrolysis based processes. The paper outlines investigations into suitable models for the calculation of physico-chemical properties with the emphasis placed on conductivity, density and viscosity. Measurements were conducted within the industrial operation parameters used for silver electrolytes and the results indicate that these type of industrial electrolytes have an operating conductivity within the range of 60–140 mS/cm, density of 1.05–1.14 g/cm3 and a viscosity of 0.75–0.91 mm2/s. A representative model for each of these properties was proposed in order to calculate the conductivity, density and viscosity of silver electrolyte. From the evaluation of models, it was determined that all models have R2 (accuracy of fit) and Q2 (accuracy of prediction) values above 0.9 and thus can be regarded as excellent models.