The Role of Electrolyte Additives on Passivation Behaviour During Copper Electrorefining

Additives, such as chloride, thiourea and glue, are commonly added to electrorefining electrolyte to control deposition structure and morphology. Very few studies have been performed to observe their effects on anode passivation. Chronopotentiometry was utilized to observe the passivation behaviour of commercial copper anodes in synthetic electrolyte. The effect of chloride, thiourea and glue were investigated individually. A simulated electrolyte containing all three additives was used in conjunction with twenty commercial copper anode samples to determine possible interactions between additives and anode composition