Properties and Kinetics of Selective Zinc Leaching with Choline Chloride and Urea

Abstract

A choline chloride-urea (ChCl-urea) deep eutectic solvent (DES) was used to experimentally investigate the secondary recovery of zinc from zinc-bearing dust sludge via a leaching process. The effects of varying the liquid–solid ratio, leaching temperature, stirring speed, and leaching time on the zinc leaching efficiency were determined, and the optimum values of these parameters were found to be 15:1, 90 °C, 400 rpm, and 600 min, respectively, at which a leaching efficiency of 86.87% was achieved. XRF and EDS analyses confirmed that the zinc content in the sludge decreased noticeably after leaching, while those of other elements did not, indicating the selective and efficient leaching of zinc. A study of the leaching kinetics showed that the reaction conforms to the nuclear shrinkage model without solid product layer formation, and the calculated apparent activation energy is 22.16 kJ/mol.