Photometric determination of rhenium in mixed hydrochloric-nitric acidic solutions formed upon processing of molibdenite concentrate

The results of spectrophotometric study of the system Re (VII) – HNO₃ – HCl – mercaptoacetic acid – Sn (II) are used to develop a sensitive and selective method of photocolorimetric determination of rhenium in acid nitrate-sulfate solutions formed upon decomposition of molybdenite concentrates with nitric acid and also to reveal trends in complexation of aliovalent rhenium with organic sulfur ligands. Ammonium perrhenate (AR-0) was purified on a Purolite C-100 cation exchanger. Solutions of mercaptoacetic (thioglycolic) acid were prepared from chemically pure Apolda chemical (Germany). Light absorption spectra were recorded on EPS-3T (Hitachi, Japan) and Specord M-40 (Carl Zeiss Jena, Germany) spectrophotometers; the optical density of the solutions was recorded on a KFK-2 (Russia) photocolorimeter. Optimal conditions for the formation of a colored complex compound with mercaptoacetic acid in a mixed hydrochloric-nitric acid solution were determined along with the composition and stability of the complex. The mechanism of redox reactions that occur during complexation is proposed. A technique for monitoring the rhenium content in the products of hydrometallurgical processing of molybdenite concentrates is developed. The procedure provides rhenium determination in the presence of accompanying elements (Mo, Cu, Fe, Ni, etc.) and oxidizing agents (>120 g/liter The developed procedure includes preliminary separation of molybdenum and other interfering impurities by selective sorption of ions on a strongly basic anionite (ChFO) followed by their desorption with a 5 M HNO₃ solution and subsequent photocolorimetric determination of rhenium in the eluate in the form of an orange-yellow (λ_max = 460 nm) mixes-ligand complex of Re (III) of assumed composition [Re(L)₃NOCl]–, where L — is mercaptoacetic acid anion. The developed method of rhenium determination was used in analysis of effluents of washing sulfuric acid taken from the sulfuric acid workshop of the copper smelting plant of Almalyk MMC JSC (Uzbekistan).

rhenium, molybdenum, mercaptoacetic acid, complexation, photocolorimetry, molybdenite concentrate

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