The Parkes process is a pyrometallurgical industrial method for removing silver from lead during bullion production, patented by Alexander Parkes in 1850. It exploits the fact that zinc does not mix with molten lead but dissolves silver at roughly 3,000 times the concentration lead does, so introducing zinc to lead containing silver impurities draws the silver into a separate zinc layer that is skimmed off and then heated to vaporize the zinc, leaving nearly pure silver behind.
Facts
SignificanceUses zinc, which is immiscible with lead while silver is far more soluble in zinc, to extract silver from lead 1 Connections
In Field
Source Parkes process, Wikipedia
Sources
1. Parkes process, Wikipedia
Article body, patent statement
The process was patented by Alexander Parkes in 1850.
Article body, process principle
The process takes advantage of two liquid-state properties of zinc. The first is that zinc is immiscible with lead, and the other is that silver is 3000 times more soluble in zinc than it is in lead.
In Field: Metallurgical Engineering, Categories
Metallurgical processes
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