Describe extraction of metals or electrometallurgy.
Answers
Electrometallurgy involves metallurgical processes that take place in some form of electrolytic cell. The most common types of electrometallurgical processes are electrowinning and electro-refining. Electrowinning is an electrolysis process used to recover metals in aqueous solution, usually as the result of an ore having undergone one or more hydrometallurgical processes. The metal of interest is plated onto a cathode, while an anode is composed of an inert electrical conductor. Electro-refining is used to dissolve an impure metallic anode (typically from a smelting process) and produce a high purity cathode. Fused salt electrolysis is another electrometallurgical process whereby the valuable metal is dissolved into a molten salt, which acts as the electrolyte, and the valuable metal collects on the cathode of the cell.
The scope of electrometallurgy has significant overlap with the areas of hydrometallurgy and (in the case of fused salt electrolysis) pyrometallurgy. Additionally, electrochemical phenomena play a considerable role in many mineral processing and hydrometallurgical processes.
the method used to extract metals from the ore in which they are found depends on thier reactivity. For example, reactive metals such as aluminium are extracted by electrolysis,while a less reactive metal such as iron may be extracted by reduction with carbon or carbon monoxide