Abstract:Electrochemical behavior of lead, zinc, sulfur and selenium impurities in nickel electrolyte in nickel electrorefining was studied by cyclic voltammetry. The results show that lead and zinc are reduced to metallic elements at the cathode, while sulfur and selenium form NixSy and NixSey with nickel ions. The cathodic polarization method was used to study the influence of electrolysis process conditions such as temperature, pH value and chloride ion concentration on reduction potential of impurities Pb, Zn, S and Se. In industrial production, electrolytic conditions can be adjusted according to the needs of impurity control so as to reduce total amount of some impurity elements precipitated in cathode.