Collection of Ni-bearing material from electroless plating waste by magnetic separation with HTS bulk magnet

The magnetic separation experiment to collect the Ni compounds from the waste liquid of electroless plating processes was conducted in the open-gradient magnetic separation process with the high temperature superconducting bulk magnet system. The magnetic pole containing Gd-based bulk superconductors was activated to 3.45 T at 35 K in the static magnetic field of 5 T with use of a superconducting solenoid magnet. The coarse Ni-sulfate crystals were formed by adding the concentrated sulfuric acid to the Ni-phosphite precipitates which yielded from the plating waste liquid by controlling the temperature and the pH value. The open-gradient magnetic separation technique was employed to separate the Ni-sulfate crystals from the mixture of the Ni-sulfate and Ni-phosphite compounds by the difference between their magnetic properties. And we succeeded in collecting Ni-sulfate crystals preferentially to the Ni-phosphite by attracting them to the magnetic pole soon after the Ni-sulfate crystals began to grow.

► The magnetic separation for Ni compounds was conducted by HTS bulk magnet.
► The coarse Ni-sulfate crystals were formed from the Ni-phosphite precipitates.
► Ni-sulfate crystals was separated from the mixture of Ni-sulfate and Ni-phosphite compounds.