Recovery of molybdenum from leach solution using polyelectrolyte extraction

In this research, extraction and purification of molybdenum from a leach solution of molybdenite dissolution was performed. Cationic polyelectrolytes were used for the first time in this study for selective recovery of molybdenum. For this purpose, some water-soluble coagulants of KlarAid PC products were employed and the experimental results in terms of recovery percentages, optimum value of needed polyelectrolyte and their performance were investigated. In order to evaluate the extraction and purification process, the precipitated molybdenum compounds were studied by ICP-OES, XRD, FTIR, and SEM. The results showed that about 88% of molybdenum could be recovered in one step with a final estimated purity of 100%. Afterward, a relatively pure MoO3 product with a layered-structure was successfully synthesized by a simple heat treatment. Finally, the results showed that the proposed novel method, polyelectrolyte extraction (PX), could be an efficient alternative to other processes (i.e. ion exchange resins and solvent extraction) for selective recovery of metals from acid solution.