Synthesis of fine particle powder of copper by electrolysis Using irregular factorial design of experiment

Chemical precipitation or electrolysis is a method to produce high purity copper powder. Producing fine powder of copper was one of the purposes of this research. Effect of parameters such as current density, sulfuric acid concentration, copper ion concentration and chlorine ion concentration on producing copper powder by this method, were studied in this research. Other parameters such as temperature, electrodes surface area, agitation speed, anode-cathode distance, anode and cathode surface roughness were kept constant while considered parameters were varied as; current density 0/25-0/35 A/cm2, sulfuric acid concentration 140-180 g/L, copper ion concentration 2-8 g/L and chlorine ion concentration 0- 60 ppm. To optimize these parameters, irregular factorial design of experiments was used and 15 tests were carried out. Produced powder was characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). After surveying the results, optimized parameters were concluded and a mathematical model was presented.