Silver recovery from waste x-ray photographic films collected from hospitals in Addis Ababa

Abstract

The present research reports a simple and efficient method for silver recovery using sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide from the waste x-ray film. Response surface methodology was used to evaluate the effect of process parameters. The yield of silver by adopting this method was 1.07% at a stripping temperature of 70.88°C, at 10.97 min and NaOH concentration of 1.5M. The composition of recovered silver was determined by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF).

Keywords: Photographic film, sodium hydroxide, XRF, Silver recovery