Abstract
In recent years, with the increasing research and development of the light-emitting diode (LED) industry, which contains gallium nitride (GaN), it is expected that there will be a large amount of related wastes in the future. Gallium has an extremely high economic value, therefore, it is necessary to establish a recycling system for the GaN waste. However, GaN is a direct-gap semiconductor and with its high energy gap, high hardness, and high melting point, these make it difficult to recycle. Therefore, this study will analyze the physical characteristics of LED wastes containing GaN and carry out various leaching methods to leach the valuable metals from the waste optimally. Different acids are used to find out the best reagent for gallium leaching. Different experimental parameters are discussed, such as the effect of the different acid agents, concentration, pressure, liquid-solid mass ratio, temperature and time, which influence the leaching efficiency of gallium. Finally, acid leaching under high pressure is preferred to leach the GaN waste, and hydrochloric acid is used as the leaching solution because of its better leaching efficiency of gallium. Optimally, the leaching efficiency of gallium can reach 98%.
Highlights
Gallium and indium are essential ingredients for semiconductors and light-emitting diode (LED) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) chips, cell phones, photovoltaic generation panels, optical communication devices and computers [1]
The gallium nitride (GaN) waste powder was analyzed by a X-ray fluorescence analyzer (XRF; Spectro XEPOS, Kleve, Germany) as the semi-quantitation analysis and a X-ray diffraction
The leaching method of gallium from the GaN waste has proven in this work to be successful and effective
Summary
Gallium and indium are essential ingredients for semiconductors and light-emitting diode (LED) LED chips, cell phones, photovoltaic generation panels, optical communication devices and computers [1]. Both of these metals are vital for the electronics industry because of their unique physical and chemical properties, and are classified as significant from an industrial application perspective and critical from a supply chain scarcity prospective [2,3]. Silvery metal which is used primarily in electronic circuits, semiconductors, and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Gallium is used for such familiar applications as screen backlighting for computer notebooks, flat-screen televisions, and desktop computer monitors [5]
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