Study of corrosion behavior of virgin and recycled Pb anodes used in zinc electrowinning industry Shima Nakisa, Naghi Parvini ahmadi and Javad Moghaddam Faculty of Material Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran, and Habib Ashassi-Sorkhabi University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran Abstract Purpose – The composition and corrosion behaviors of recycled and virgin Pb anode were investigated in industrial zinc electrowinning solution with different methods. The purpose of this study is the illustration of good anticorrosion activity of virgin Pb anodes compared to recycled one in industrial operation, while the compositions of both of them are the same which obtained from quantmetry method. Design/methodology/approach – Its corrosion properties and electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen evolution reaction were appraised using potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, galvanostatic polarization and ionic equilibrium methods. In addition, composition of anodes investigated with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) method. The surface composition of samples was studied via X-ray diffractogram (XRD). Findings – The results indicate that the anodes display different anodic behaviors during the galvanostatic polarization. Virgin Pb anode shows a “potential reduction” about 320 mV lower than recycled Pb anode after 6 h of polarization; also, the stable potential after 72 h for virgin Pb anode is 100 mV lower than recycled Pb anode. Also, The XPS results show a trace amount of Cl in recycled anodes which cause the more corrosion activity. XRD results indicate that virgin Pb anodes have been covered by more oxides than recycled anodes after 72 h of electrowinning. Originality/value – The treatment of corrosion behavior by virginity has not been detected by any researchers yet. Therefore, it is imperative to study the corrosion behavior and exact composition analysis of virgin and recycled Pb anodes to comprehension of them. This paper fulfills this need. Keywords XPS, Galvanistatic, Ionic equilibrium method, Recycled Pb, Virgin anode, Zinc electrowinning Paper type Research paper Introduction Good anode material must have the following three properties: electrical conductivity, electrocatalysis and stability and good corrosion resistance of the formation of PbO 2 (Ivanov et al., 2000). Long-time stability and corrosion behavior of anode are essential to cause product impurities, increasing energy consumption and material and labor costs. So anodes which have fine and uniform grains with little or no segregation of alloying elements to the grain boundary have better corrosion behavior (Prengaman et al., 1984). Pure lead has a low melting point, and it is a very ductile metal which simplifies its casting and machinery relatively. Although pure lead is a weak material and tends to creep and warp during use, so alloying with some elements could improve its mechanical properties (Umetsu et al., 1985). Lead-based alloys are widely used as anode material in hydrometallurgy industries, such as chromium coating (Devilliers et al., 2003), electrowinning (Li et al., 2011; Lafront et al.,2010) and lead-acid batteries (Egan et al., 2011; Os orio et al.,2009). High corrosion resistance, high electrocatalytic efficiency and electrical conductivity (Pérez- Gonz alez et al., 2012; Li et al.,2007) of lead-based alloys cause of these uses. The early research of these kinds of anodes and their corrosion mechanism in sulphuric acid solution are due to these attractive properties (Hirasawa et al., 2000; Xu et al.,2006). One of the most important electrochemical processes during the electrowinning of nonferrous metals is oxygen evolution reaction (OER) (Encyclopedia Electrochem, 2007). The oxygen overpotential is fairly high to increase the cell voltage and decrease energy efficiency (Zhanga and Houlachi, 2010). Due to some problems of Pb alloys such as high OER over- potential, Pb contamination to cathodic products, short-circuit resulting from lead distortion and great consumption of noble metal (e.g. Ag) (Li et al., 2011), there is always interest in finding ways to improve anode performance and minimize the corrosion and overpotential problems (Yu and O’Keefe, 2002). Pointed at these shortcomings, several alloying elements such The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0003-5599.htm Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials © Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 0003-5599] [DOI 10.1108/ACMM-04-2017-1787] The authors gratefully acknowledge the Zanjan Zinc Khales Sazan Industries Company (ZZKI Co.) for the financial and technical support of this work. Received 14 April 2017 Accepted 1 March 2019