Accepted Manuscript

Effect of jet flow between electrodes on power consumption and

the apparent density of electrolytic copper powders

Hongdan Wang, Qian Wang, Wentang Xia, Bingzhi Ren

PII: S0032-5910(18)30994-X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2018.11.078
Reference: PTEC 13913
To appear in: Powder Technology
Received date: 9 September 2018
Revised date: 1 November 2018
Accepted date: 17 November 2018

Please cite this article as: Hongdan Wang, Qian Wang, Wentang Xia, Bingzhi Ren ,
Effect of jet flow between electrodes on power consumption and the apparent density of
electrolytic copper powders. Ptec (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2018.11.078

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Effect of jet flow between electrodes on power consumption and the

apparent density of electrolytic copper powders

Hongdan Wanga,b, Qian Wanga,, Wentang Xiab,, Bingzhi Renb,

a
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044,

China

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b
School of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Chongqing University of Science &

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Technology, Chongqing 401331, China

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Corresponding author:

Qian Wang, wangqian66@vip.sina.com, College of Materials Science and Engineering,

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Chongqing University, No.174 Shazhengjie, Shapingba District, Chongqing 400044, China.

Wentang Xia, wentangx@163.com; Bingzhi Ren, renbingzhi@cqust.edu.cn; School of

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Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Chongqing University of Science & Technology,

No.20 East Road, University Town, Shapingba District, Chongqing 401331, China.
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Abstract
Electrolysis is one of the main methods for producing copper powder, but has the

disadvantage of high power consumption. This paper describes an experimental study of a

process for electrolytic production of copper powder in which a jet flow of fresh electrolyte is

introduced between anode–cathode pairs. The effects of electrolyte inlet mode and circulation

rate on the direct current (DC) power consumption and on the morphology and apparent

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density of the copper powder produced are investigated. The results show that in the

conventional bottom- inlet/top-outlet mode, the electrolyte circulation rate has little influence

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on DC power consumption. In contrast, when a jet flow is used, an increase in electrolyte

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circulation rate leads to an increase in current efficiency and a decrease in cell voltage,

resulting in a significant reduction in DC power consumption, which drops by as much as

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37%. In addition, as a result of agitation by the jet flow, the copper powder deposited at the

cathode becomes denser, the powder particles become coarser and less dendritic on the
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microscale, and their apparent density increases from 0.33 g cm−3 to 1.90 g cm−3 .

Keywords: Jet flow; power consumption; apparent density; copper powder; electrolysis
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1 Introduction
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Copper powder is widely used in the electronics and powder metallurgy industries and is
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produced mainly by four methods: mechanical grinding, chemical precipitation, liquid metal

atomization, and electrolysis [1]. Among these, electrolysis requires low capital investment [2]
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and is an environmentally friendly method for producing copper powder in a closed circuit.
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The technical basis of copper powder production by electrolysis is similar to that of

copper electrorefining. Copper plates are usually used as both anode and cathode, and the

electrolyte consists of copper sulfate and sulfuric acid. Since the formation of copper powder

by electrochemical deposition is essentially a purification process, this method enables the

production of metal powder of high purity [2]. Compared with copper electrorefining, a

higher current density and a lower copper ion concentration are used to form copper powder

particles, and copper electrodeposition occurs at the cathode simultaneously with hydrogen

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evolution during the electrolysis processes. As the morphology of electrolytic copper powders

is dendritic, they can be easily pressed and sintered [3] and have the advantage of high green

strength [2]. However, the direct current (DC) power consumption during copper powder

electrolysis (about 2000 kW h t−1 ) [4] is much higher than that required for copper

electrorefining (about 300 kW h t−1 ) [5] , because of the high current density used and the

hydrogen evolution reaction. This high power consumption is the main disadvantage of the

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electrolytic method, and it is also one of the reasons why this method gives a lower yield of

copper powder than either chemical precipitation or atomization.

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The major physical properties of a metal powder are its particle size distribution, grain

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shape, and specific surface area, and the main technological properties include its apparent

density, tap density, flowability, and formability. The range of potential applications of copper
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powder is strongly dependent on these properties. Among them, the apparent density, which is

closely related to the shape and size of the powder particles [6], has a very important
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influence on both flowability and formability and is one of the most critical performance

parameters of electrolytic copper powders.

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Therefore, much research has focused on the power consumption of the electrolytic

production process and on the properties of the copper powder produced by this method.
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There have been a number of studies of the effects on power consumption of a variety of

process parameters: electrolyte temperature [4] and circulation rate [4,7,8], copper ion and
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sulfuric acid concentrations [4,7], current density [7], additives [4,9], and the time of removal
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of the copper powder from the cathode surface [7]. The influences of these parameters on

particle size [7,10], apparent density [2,8], and morphology [24,10,11] of electrolytic copper

powders have also been investigated, and the results have shown that the morphology and

other properties of these powders depend strongly on copper ion concentration, current

density, and amount of hydrogen evolution.

Mettop GmbH (Austria) have developed a parallel flow technique for copper

electrorefining, namely METTOP-BRX-Technology [12], which enhances productivity by

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increasing the current density while giving very good cathode quality [12,13]. In this

technique, the fresh electrolyte is introduced directly into the cathode surface in an upward

flow by a novel manifold inlet designed for each individual tankhouse to reduce the thickness

of the diffusion boundary layer [14]. In our study, this idea was introduced to copper powder

electrolysis. The present paper describes an experimental study of the application of a similar

jet technique to the electrolytic production of copper powder. The effects of the electrolyte

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inlet mode, the electrolyte circulation rate, and the position of the jet on DC power

consumption and on the morphology and apparent density of the copper powder are

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investigated.

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2 Experimental details NU
Figure 1a is a schematic diagram of an experimental apparatus for the electrolytic production

of copper powder. A 2 L Plexiglas container was used as the electrolytic cell and was
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connected to a 25 L plastic barrel with pipes, flowmeters, and pumps to circulate the

electrolyte during the electrodeposition process. A heating belt around the barrel was used to
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maintain a constant electrolyte temperature, and an electrically powered stirrer was used to

ensure homogeneity of both temperature and composition in the bulk electrolyte.

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Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the experimental device for electrolytic production of copper
powder in (a) conventional bottom- inlet/top-outlet mode, (b) single-side jet inlet mode, and (c)
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double-side jet inlet mode [13]. 1, plastic barrel; 2, heating belt; 3, electrolyte outlet; 4, anode;
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5, cathode; 6, electrolytic cell; 7, electrolyte; 8, thermometer; 9, pump; 10, electrolyte inlet; 11,
electrically powered stirrer; 12, nozzle; 13, reservoir (Unit: mm).

Seven electrodes were positioned in the electrolytic cell to imitate the actual electrolyte

flow in an industrial cell, but only a single anode–cathode pair in the middle of the cell was

powered. Pure copper plates were used for both anodes and cathodes and were covered with

transparent tape except for an area of 180 cm2 (120 mm  150 mm) on which the copper

powder was to be electrodeposited. The surface of the cathode was polished with sandpaper to

make it smooth and scratch-free before each experiment.

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In all experiments, copper powder was obtained by electrochemical deposition under the

following process conditions: the concentrations of copper ion and sulfuric acid were 8 g L−1

and 150 g L−1 , respectively, the temperature of electrolysis was 401 °C, the distance between

the cathode and the anode was 20 mm, the current density was 1200 A m−2 , the time of

removal of powder from the cathode surface was 25 min, and no additives were used in the

electrolyte. Before electrodeposition, the concentrations of copper ions and sulfuric acid in the

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electrolyte were determined by a chemical method and appropriate amounts of doubly

distilled water and concentrated sulfuric acid were added to the barrel to keep these

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concentrations constant. After electrolysis, the deposited copper powder was removed from

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the cathode surface, washed several times with distilled water, rinsed with a 1% benzotriazole

(C6 H5 N3 ) solution as antioxidant treatment, dried at 80 °C under vacuum, and weighed. A DC

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power supply (ZHAOXIN; KXN-3030D; China) was used to ensure a constant current

density. The cell voltage was transferred to a computer every 10 seconds through a digital
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multimeter (VICTOR; VC86E; China) with recording software. The DC power consumption

(W) in kW h t1 could then be calculated from the average cell voltage (V) in volts and the
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mass of the actual deposited copper powders (m) in grams using the equation (1) [15]

1 0 0 0V
W  (1)
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q
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where the electrochemical equivalent of copper is denoted q (g A1 h1 ), and  is the current
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efficiency, described in equation (2) based on Faraday’s law [15]

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m
   100% (2)
q D S

where D is the current density (A m2 ), S represents the area of the cathode electrodeposition

zone (m2 ), and  is the time (h).

Three parallel experiments were performed, and the results were averaged. The

morphology of the electrolytic copper powder was observed with a field emission scanning

electron microscope (FESEM; JSM-7800F, Japan). The apparent density of the copper

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powder was determined by the funnel method according to GB/T 31057.1-2014 [16]. The

powders were poured into a measuring cup of 25 cm3 through a funnel, and then the apparent

density was calculated through mass of the powders over the volume of the cup.

Three inlet modes of the electrolyte were adopted, as depicted schematically in figure 1.

Figure 1a shows the conventional inlet mode of bottom- inlet/top-outlet. In the experiments on

this mode, the influence of electrolyte circulation rate was investigated. Figure 1b shows the

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single-side jet inlet mode, in which fresh electrolyte was introduced directly between the

anode and the cathode as a jet flow from 3 mm-diameter plastic straight tubular nozzles

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mounted in a specially designed Plexiglas reservoir within the electrolytic cell. The nozzles

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could be positioned in any one of four equidistant rows of round holes in the reservoir. In the

experiments on this mode, the influences of electrolyte circulation rate and jet position were
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explored. In addition, the METTOP-BRX-Technology introduces the fresh electrolyte directly

at the cathode [12], whereas the effects of the jet flow near both the cathode and anode (the
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nozzle was at a distance of 5 mm from the electrode) were investigated in the present paper.

In view of the limited agitation range of the single-side jet flow, a double-side jet inlet mode
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was designed (figure 1c) [13], and the influence of the combined jet positions was studied.
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3 Results and discussion

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In the conventional bottom- inlet/top-outlet mode, the electrolyte circulation rate has little
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effect on DC power consumption during the production of copper powder, as can be seen
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from figure 2. As the rate increases from 0.5 L min−1 to 4.0 L min−1 , the current efficiency for

the electrolytic production of copper powder increases only slightly, from 85.6% to 86.7%,

while the cell voltage decreases slightly from 983 mV to 972 mV, resulting in a small

reduction in power consumption from 968 kW h t−1 to 946 kW h t−1 , which is a decrease of

only 2.4%. This result shows that in the conventional inlet mode, it is inefficient to reduce

power consumption during the electrolytic production of copper powder by increasing the

electrolyte circulation rate. This is because multiple pairs of electrode plates are fixed in the

cell in parallel and the distance between each cathode and anode is small, so that fresh

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electrolyte flows out mainly from the bottom and both sides of the cell, bypassing the

electrodes [17], as a consequence of which very little fresh electrolyte actually reaches the

regions between anodes and cathodes.

Figure 2: Effect of electrolyte circulation rate on direct current (DC) power consumption
during electrolytic production of copper powder in the conventional inlet mode. Note that
since the cell voltage is of the same order of magnitude as the power consumption, these two

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variables are plotted on the right Y axis in this and the following figures.

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In the single-side jet inlet mode, the effect of electrolyte circulation rate on DC power

consumption is shown in figure 3. When the jet flow is introduced near the cathode and the

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electrolyte circulation rate is greater than 1.0 L min−1 , the current efficiency increases sharply
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and the cell voltage decreases rapidly with increasing electrolyte circulation rate, eventually

leading to a significant reduction in power consumption, with a maximum drop of 37%

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(figure 3a). This can be explained as a result of the jet flow enhancing the electrolyte flow

directly between the electrodes compared with the conventional inlet mode and thereby

reducing the concentration polarization at the cathode [4], leading to a decrease in cell voltage.
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Meanwhile, the electrodeposition rate of the copper powder is increased and the hydrogen

evolution reaction is suppressed, and thus the current efficiency is improved. Therefore, the
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power consumption is significantly reduced. A similar change in power consumption is

observed when the jet flow is introduced near the anode (figure 3b). On the one hand, this
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may be due to the fact that a large number of copper ions are precipitated at high current
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density and are unable to diffuse rapidly into the bulk electrolyte, resulting in an increase in

the concentration of copper ions near the surface of the anode, while the jet flow helps to

decrease the concentration gradient of the solute and thereby reduce the concentration

polarization at the anode. On the other hand, since the distance between the cathode and the

anode is small, the jet flow near the anode also has a significant effect on the electrolyte flow

near the cathode. It can thus be concluded that the jet flow is able to effectively reduce power

consumption during the electrolytic production of copper powder.

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Figure 3: Effect of electrolyte circulation rate on DC power consumption during the

electrolytic production of copper powder with a single-side jet flow near (a) the cathode and
(b) the anode. The position of the single-side jet inlet was at the No. II nozzle as shown in
figure 1b.

The apparent density of copper powder obtained using different electrolyte inlet modes

varies with the electrolyte circulation rate, as shown in figure 4. In the conventional inlet

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mode, the apparent density of the powder hardly changes as the electrolyte circulation rate is

increased. In the single-side jet inlet mode, an increase in electrolyte circulation rate causes an

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increase in apparent density, especially once the rate has exceeded 1.0 L min−1 . From a

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comparison of the two single-side jet inlet modes, it can be seen that the apparent density is

greater when the jet inlet is near the cathode, increasing from 0.33 g cm−3 to 1.90 g cm−3 as
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the flow rate increases from 0.5 L min−1 to 3.0 L min−1 . Since the morphology of the powder

particles directly affects their apparent density, it can be inferred that the jet flow causes a
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change in the morphology. In addition, we observed that when the electrolyte circulation rate

was 4.0 L min1 with the single-side jet inlet near the cathode, some copper powders
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deposited on the cathode were occasionally washed away by the jet flow. Hence, to minimize

the influence of the jet flow on the morphology and apparent density of the copper powder,
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only a jet inlet near the anode was considered in the following study of the effects of jet
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position.
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Figure 4: Effect of electrolyte circulation rate on the apparent density of electrolytic copper
powder. The position of the single-side jet inlet was at the No. II nozzle as shown in figure 1b.

At the end of electrolysis, the appearance of the copper powders electrodeposited at the

cathode varies greatly among the three electrolyte inlet modes, as shown in figure 5. In the

conventional inlet mode, the copper powders over the entire cathode surface are filled with

uniform and dense pores, like a honeycomb [3] (figure 5a). With the single-side jet inlet near

the cathode, there is an obvious fan-shaped jet flow trace on the surface of the cathode and the

number of pores is greatly reduced, especially in the jet flow zone, where the copper powder

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deposits are very dense (figure 5b). With the single-side jet inlet near the anode, as the jet

flow was slightly farther from the cathode, the jet flow trace is relatively slight, but there is

still an obvious decrease in the number of honeycomb pores (figure 5c). This can be explained

by the fact that the current efficiency for the electrolytic production of copper powder in the

single-side jet inlet mode increases significantly compared with the conventional inlet mode

(see figure 3), resulting in a decrease in hydrogen evolution and thus in the generation of

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pores. It can be speculated that the electrolyte flow between the electrodes has a strong effect

on the macroscopic morphology of the electrodeposited copper powders at the cathode, which

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inevitably causes a change in the microscopic morphology of the powder particles.

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Figure 5: Appearance of copper powders electrodeposited at the cathode in different
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electrolyte inlet modes: (a) conventional inlet mode, (b) single-side jet inlet near the cathode,
and (c) single-side jet inlet near the anode. The electrolyte circulation rate was 2.0 L min−1
and the position of the single-side jet inlet was at the No. II nozzle as shown in figure 1b.
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The morphologies of copper powder particles obtained with the three electrolyte inlet

modes are shown in figure 6. The morphology of the particles obtained with the conventional
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inlet mode (figure 6a) is acicular dendritic with well-developed primary and secondary

dendrite arms [6]. With the single-side jet inlet near the cathode (figure 6b), the particle
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morphology is still dendritic, but some particles with massive globular dendrites or with

denser and less branched dendrites are present. With the single-side jet inlet near the anode
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(figure 6c), there are no particles with massive dendrites, but the morphology of the particles
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is less branched and denser compared with ones obtained in the conventional inlet mode (see

figure 6a).

The cathode limiting diffusion current density for steady-state linear diffusion is denoted
j L, given by equation (3) [18]

nFD C 0
jL  (3)


where n is the number of transferred electrons, F is the Faraday constant, D and C0 are the
diffusion coefficient and bulk concentration of copper ions, respectively, and  is the

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thickness of the cathode diffusion boundary layer.

According to the concept of “effective overpotential” [19], the agitation of a jet flow

changes the hydrodynamic conditions in the near-cathode layer, thus decreasing the thickness

of the cathode diffusion boundary layer and increasing the limiting diffusion current density,

as shown in equation (3). The morphologies of the powder particles obtained with the jet inlet

become similar to ones electrodeposited at some lower current densities where the hydrogen

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evolution does not exist [10]. That is, the particles are coarse and less dendritic, which

reduces their specific surface area, thus leading to an increase in their apparent density.

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Figure 6: Morphology of electrolytic copper powders obtained with different electrolyte inlet
modes: (a) conventional inlet mode, (b) single-side jet inlet near the cathode, and (c)
single-side jet inlet near the anode. The electrolyte circulation rate was 2.0 L min−1 , the
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position of the single-side jet inlet was at the No. II nozzle as shown in figure 1b, and the
sampling location was in the middle of the area of electrodeposited copper powders at the
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cathode.

With the single-side jet inlet near the anode, the jet position has a great influence on both
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DC power consumption and the apparent density of the electrolytic copper powder, as can be

seen in figure 7. The apparent density of the powder is inversely related to power
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consumption. That is to say, the lower the power consumption, the greater is the apparent
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density. The No. III nozzle has the lowest power consumption of 660 kW h t−1 , which is 25%

lower than the highest power consumption of the No. IV nozzle (874 kW h t−1 ). However, the
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apparent density of the powder obtained with the No. III nozzle (1.29 g cm−3 ) is the highest
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and is nearly three times that obtained with the No. IV nozzle (0.45 g cm−3 ).

Figure 7: Effect of jet position on DC power consumption and the apparent density of
electrolytic copper powder obtained with the single-side jet inlet near the anode. The
electrolyte circulation rate was 2.0 L min−1 .

With the double-side jet inlets near the anode, the effects of the combined jet positions on

DC power consumption and the apparent density of electrolytic copper powder are as shown

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in figure 8. The power consumption varies in the range 747856 kW h t−1 and the apparent

density in the range 0.490.72 g cm−3 . The power consumption is lowest and the apparent

density of the powder highest with the combination of No. I and No. III nozzles. Compared

with the No. III nozzle in the single-side jet inlet mode (see figure 7), the power consumption

is not reduced, and at the same total electrolyte circulation rate of 2.0 L min−1 , the apparent

density of the powder is lower. The mechanism of the influence of jet position on power

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consumption and the apparent density of the electrolytic copper powder has to be clarified by

analyzing both the electrolyte flow behavior and the concentration boundary layer on the

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cathode surface. With these aims in mind, in future work, we shall be performing numerical

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simulations.
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Figure 8: Effect of combined jet positions on DC power consumption and the apparent
density of electrolytic copper powder obtained with double-side jet inlets near the anode. The
electrolyte circulation rate at each side was 1.0 L min−1 .
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4 Conclusions
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The effects of a jet flow of fresh electrolyte between the cathode and the anode on DC power

consumption and on the morphology and apparent density of electrolytic copper powder have
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been examined experimentally, and the following conclusions have been reached:

(1) In the conventional bottom- inlet/top-outlet mode, with increasing electrolyte circulation
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rate, the power consumption and the apparent density of the copper powder change little.
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The copper powders electrodeposited at the cathode have a honeycomb- like appearance

and the particle morphology is acicular dendritic.

(2) When there is a jet flow between each pair of electrodes, the DC power consumption is

reduced by as much as 37% compared with the conventional inlet mode. However, in the

jet inlet mode, there is dense deposition of copper powder particles at the cathode owing

to the reduction in the amount of hydrogen evolution. Also, the morphology of some of

the particles changes from one with dispersed dendrites to one with dense and less

branched dendrites, resulting in an increase in the apparent density, especially when the

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jet inlet is near the cathode rather than the anode.

(3) At a given value of the electrolyte circulation rate, the jet position has a great influence

on both power consumption and the apparent density of the electrolytic copper powder,

which are negatively correlated. The lowest power consumption and the highest apparent

density are obtained with the No. III nozzle (see figure 1b) for a single-side jet inlet near

the anode, and with a combination of the No. I and No. III nozzles (see figure 1c) for

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double-side jet inlets near the anode.

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Funding

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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [ grant number

51674057]; the Chongqing Research Program of Basic Research and Frontier Technology
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[grant numbers cstc2016jcyjA0142, cstc2017jcyjAX0236]; the Scientific and Technological

Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission [grant numbers

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KJ1601326, KJ1713343]; and the Research Foundation of Chongqing University of Science

& Technology [grant number CK2016B19].

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Declaration of interest
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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[19] N.D. Nikolić, K.I. Popov, Lj.J. Pavlović, M.G. Pavlović, The effect of hydrogen
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codeposition on the morphology of copper electrodeposits. I. The concept of effective

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2005.12.006.

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Highlights

 Fresh electrolyte is introduced directly between the anode and the cathode as a jet flow

 The jet flow is able to effectively reduce power consumption

 The apparent density of copper powder increases significantly

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