Abstract
Technological advancement over the past decade has dramatically changed with new players such as China taking lead in information-technology and telecommunication market across the world. This development has seen surge in manufacturing industry output and consequently raw materials consumed by the sector. The environmental impact is however evident due to human interference with nature. E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream posing serious risk to fauna and flora due to numerous associated pollutants. In recycling industry, hydrometallurgy is widely adopted to recover metals from e-waste. Despite growing concern over secondary pollution associated with disposal, concentrated aqua regia is widely used to extract metals from e-waste. An ultrasonic bath enhanced dilute-acid leaching method was developed to recover copper and lead from waste mobile phone PCB. Repeatability and reproducibility showed 5.3% and 5.0% with respect to Cu while 9.8% and 6.3% RSD were recorded for lead. LOD and LOQ of 0.02 µg/g and 0.064 µg/g (Cu) and 0.082 µg/g and 0.312 µg/g (Pb) revealed that the method is suitable for dissolution of target metals from PCBs. Copper concentration of 332.98 mg/g recorded inferred that dilute aqua regia as much as concentrated has promising metal extraction power and thus could replace concentrated acids.
Highlights
Experimental work was carried out using waste cell phone PCB shredded and milled into fine particles following dismantling of electronic components mounted on the PCBs. 50 ml of 2 M of dilute mineral acid viz. HCl, H2SO4, HNO3, HCl: HNO3, H2SO4: HNO3 and H2O2: HNO3 were measured while maintaining 1:1 where two different acids were involved, and 0.3 g of dried ground sample were added into a volumetric flask
The leachates were subjected to flame atomic absorption spectroscopy to determine copper (Cu) and lead (Pb)
The result showed (HCl: HNO3) had better leaching strength with concentration of 333 mg/g Cu while HCl had the lowest concentration (28 mg/g) and a similar trend were observed in Pb
Summary
Experimental work was carried out using waste cell phone PCB shredded and milled into fine particles following dismantling of electronic components mounted on the PCBs. 50 ml of 2 M of dilute mineral acid viz. HCl, H2SO4, HNO3, HCl: HNO3, H2SO4: HNO3 and H2O2: HNO3 were measured while maintaining 1:1 (volume ratio) where two different acids were involved, and 0.3 g of dried ground sample were added into a volumetric flask. Short life cycle and technological innovation render EEE redundant, leading to the unprecedented rise in the generation of e-waste [1&2].
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