THERMAL TREATMENT INFLUENCE ON COPPER EXTRACTION FROM ELECTRONIC WASTE

Abstract

The paper provides the results of studying the influence of preliminary thermal treatment of crushed electronic waste at a temperature of 450 °C on the copper extraction degree during subsequent material leaching by nitric acid solutions. Electronic industry waste, in particular automobile microcircuits and computer printed circuit boards, was chosen as a research object. It was experimentally determined that the percentage of the organic phase in the research object composition varies within 20–25 % of the crushed raw material mass. The results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) show that the maximum degree of organic removal and formation of metal oxides are observed in a temperature range of 400–450 °C. A mathematical model of copper leaching from electronic waste by HNO3 solutions was obtained. The optimum parameters for the process were found – the temperature in the system is 75 °C; leaching duration is 150 min; acid concentration is 4 M with a maximum copper extraction to the solution of 98 %. A comparative analysis of leaching processes for two types of materials (after thermal treatment and without it) was carried out. It was experimentally confirmed that copper leaching from electronic waste by nitric acid solutions with lower concentrations is more complete for materials after preliminary thermal treatment as compared to raw material leaching without thermal treatment. It was proved that preliminary thermal treatment leads to phase changes in the composition of the research object, namely, the transition of metals to their oxide forms, which positively affects the degree of copper extraction from electronic waste at subsequent nitric acid leaching.