Size effect of γ-MnO2 precoated anode on lead-containing pollutant reduction and its controllable fabrication in industrial-scale for zinc electrowinning

Lead (Pb) is the most widely used anode in zinc (Zn) electrowinning and other metallurgical industries. The resource loss and environmental pollution caused by Pb anode corrosion are urgent problems to be solved. A γ-MnO2 precoated anode was prepared successfully to reduce the Pb-containing pollutant. The size effects with its controllable preparation on an industrial scale were studied. Severe nonuniform distribution of γ-MnO2 film was observed with curbing the reduction of anode slime only 68%, when anode size increased from lab to industry. Nonuniform rate (R) and average thickness (d) were found to be the key indicators to determine the film structure distribution and their performance differences, which were random and difficult to be controlled in scale-up size. However, a controllable industrial γ-MnO2 precoated anodes (IMPA) fabricated through optimized current density (J0) and electrodeposition time (t) in our developed film-forming system. Then, the long-term performances of two IMPA with different indicators (IMPA-1: R = 34%, d = 108 μm, IMPA-2: R = 23%, d = 55 μm) were compared with the industrial typical Pb-based anode (ITPA). Of the three different anodes, the optimized IMPA-2 displayed the best performance. Within 24 d of electrowinning cycle, the corrosion inhibition effect and the anode slime reduction rate for IMPA-2 improved by 56% and 30% than IMPA-1, and improved by 100% and 91% than ITPA. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis of size effect change showed that R of IMPA was contributed to the local gas holdup distribution along the anode. Controlled size effect of uniform oxide film will have a future application prospect for the sustainability of industry, which provides an important cleaner production of Zn electrowinning and related hydrometallurgy industries.