Abstract
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) technique was used to separate and identify different cobalt-cyanide complexes from solutions containing various molar ratios of cyanide to cobalt (II). The formation of target complexes was confirmed using UV spectrophotometry. Raman spectroscopy was employed to study the general composition of each synthetized solution. Various new peaks found on CE electropherograms were assigned to appropriate complexes present in the solution. These assignments were made on the basis of a thorough survey of the cobalt-cyanide chemistry at work under cyanidation conditions. According to CE results, [Co(CN) 5 H 2 O] 2− and [Co(CN) 4 (H 2 O) 2 ] − were identified as the most important complexes to be potentially produced under simulated gold leaching conditions where [Co(CN) 5 H 2 O] 2− was distinctly the dominant complex.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This contribution would not have been possible without the technical assistance of E. Proulx (COREM) and J.F. Rioux-Dubé (Laval University).
Notes
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