Leaching of Sungun copper concentrate in deep eutectic solvent: determination of metal speciations and the electrochemical study

Copper production by pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy methods requires high energy consumption and cost. Also they have negative environmental impacts such as SO2 emission. Deep eutectic solvents, which are known as green solvents, can be a good substitute for common mineral acids in hydrometallurgical processes. The leaching of Sungun copper concentrate with the main phases of chalcopyrite and pyrite by choline chloride/toluene sulfonic acid sodium deep eutectic solvents was investigated. In this stuy to determine the dissolved ionic species after leaching of Sungun copper concentrate, UV-vis analysis was used. The results showed that the soluble copper and iron obtained from leaching were copper (II) and iron (II), respectively. Also, cyclic voltammetry method was used to investigate possible oxidation and reduction reactions during the leaching of Sungun copper concentrate. According to the results of cyclic voltammetry, two anodic peaks related to copper oxidation and one reductive peak related to sulfur reduction were seen.