Silver Nitrate from Recovered Silver of Spent Ag2O Button Cells: Synthesis and Characterization

摘要

Global demand for silver has grown in recent years. Ores are a non-renewable source; therefore, it is important to recover silver from secondary sources such as spent silver oxide button cells. In this study, spent button cells were collected, sorted, and handled with the aim of recovering silver from the cathodes by means of acid digestion followed by the cementation technique with a copper wire. The recovered silver was used to synthesize silver nitrate. Both materials were then analyzed using several analytical techniques, including energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy fluorescence, scanning electron microscopy with a field emission gun combined with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction in order to investigate their morphology and composition. In general, the results showed that is possible to recover silver and obtain silver nitrate with high purity (99.3% and 99.4%, respectively). The method presented in this study is efficient, fast, and inexpensive anc can be considered a way of obtaining added-value materials through waste recovery.