Hydrometallurgical Synthesis of pure zincite (ZnO) powder from dead zinc carbon batteries for use in the manufacturing of antimicrobial products

The conversion of waste materials in our environment into useable chemical products is a popular issue these days. Here, we report on the production of zincite powder using a very simple hydrometallurgical method. Within two hours, 92.23% of the original 10 g/L SZCB reacted at ideal leaching conditions (2.5 mol/L HCl, 80°C). The result predicted the diffusion model as rate determining step, with calculated Ea of 28.53 kJ/mol. The precipitated hydroxide was calcined to produce pure zincite powder of yield 85.2%. Analyses using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that the high purity ZnO existed as a flower-like spherical aggregation and antimicrobial testing was later carried out to be reported in part B of the research.