THE LEACHING OF GOLD BY ALKALINE GLYCINE IN MICROCHANNELS

摘要

Recently, an aqueous glycine solution has been proposed as a non-toxic environmentally friendly lixiviant to leach precious metals such as gold. To investigate the in-situ leaching of gold using alkaline glycine, we employed a microchannel system with controlled flow, temperature and pH. Microfluidic systems allow manipulating a small amount of fluids into micro-scale channels; the concept is used in this paper in order to leach a nano-scale gold layer. The thickness of gold is monitored in real-time using a microscopic camera. In this paper, we explain the microchannel fabrication process and the experimental set up. We show the results of gold recovery in different conditions of pH and temperature. In addition, we discuss the advantage and the limitation of microchannel systems in studying of leaching process. Our results show that this technique has the ability to provide fast outcomes with low chemical consumption.