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In the cyanide extraction process of silver from argentite ore, the oxidizing agent used is:

Option: 1

\begin{aligned} & \mathrm{O}_2 \\ \end{aligned}


Option: 2

\begin{aligned} & \mathrm{HCl} \\ \end{aligned}


Option: 3

\begin{aligned} & \mathrm{NaCN} \\ \end{aligned}


Option: 4

\begin{aligned} & \mathrm{Fe}_2 \mathrm{O}_3 \end{aligned}


Answers (1)

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In the cyanide extraction process of silver from argentite ore \mathrm{( \left.A g_2 S\right)}, the oxidizing agent used is oxygen \left(\mathrm{O}_2\right). The process involves the formation of a soluble complex of silver ions (\mathrm{Ag}+) with cyanide ions (\mathrm{CN^{-}}) in the presence of oxygen.

The chemical reaction can be represented as follows:

\mathrm{4 \mathrm{Ag}_2 \mathrm{S}+8 \mathrm{NaCN}+\frac{1}{2} \mathrm{O}_2 \rightarrow 4 \mathrm{Na}\left[A g(\mathrm{CN})_2\right]+2 \mathrm{Na}_2 \mathrm{S}}

In this reaction, oxygen acts as the oxidizing agent by providing the necessary oxygen atoms to oxidize the silver sulfide \left(\mathrm{Ag}_2 \mathrm{S}\right) to silver ions \left(\mathrm{Ag}^{+}\right). The cyanide ions (\mathrm{CN^{-}}) then complex with the silver ions to form a soluble silver cyanide complex \left(\left[\mathrm{Ag}\left(\mathrm{CN}_2\right]^{2-}\right]\right).

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