Title: The leaching behaviour of Cu, Zn and Pb from waste printed circuit boards by [BSO₄HPy]HSO₄

Authors: Sha Zhang; Mengjun Chen; Jiqin Wang; Bin Wang; Jinxiu Huang; Shu Chen

Addresses: Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle (SWUST), Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, 59 Qinglong Road, Mianyang, 621010, China ' Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle (SWUST), Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, 59 Qinglong Road, Mianyang, 621010, China; Shanghai Cooperative Centre for WEEE Recycling, Shanghai Second Polytechnic University, Shanghai 201209, China ' Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle (SWUST), Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, 59 Qinglong Road, Mianyang, 621010, China ' Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle (SWUST), Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, 59 Qinglong Road, Mianyang, 621010, China ' Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle (SWUST), Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, 59 Qinglong Road, Mianyang, 621010, China ' Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle (SWUST), Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, 59 Qinglong Road, Mianyang, 621010, China

Abstract: Currently, researches are mainly focused on how to recycle valuable metals from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs), but rarely on the toxic substances, such as zinc and lead, during the recycling process. In this research, the effect of zinc and lead during the process of leaching copper from WPCBs by an acidic ionic liquid (IL), N-sulfobutylpyridinium hydrosulphate ([BSO₄HPy]HSO₄), was investigated in detail. Results showed that copper and zinc could be successfully leached out by [BSO₄HPy]HSO₄. When 1 g of 0.1 to 0.25 mm WPCBs powder was leached by 25 mL of 80% (v/v) ionic liquid and 10 mL of 30% hydrogen peroxide at 40°C for 2 h, copper and zinc leaching rate could be up to 99.75% and 93.02%, respectively. H₂O₂ added amount, solid-liquid ratio and temperature could significantly impact the leaching rate of copper and zinc. On the contrary, lead leaching rate is hardly influenced by these factors, maintaining at around 2%. Thus, during the leaching process, zinc could significantly influence the leaching of copper, which was totally different for lead. Leaching kinetics analysis indicated that the leaching of copper and zinc is controlled by solid film diffusion, and the leaching of lead is controlled by chemical reaction.

Keywords: waste printed circuit boards; WPCBs; ionic liquid; copper; N-sulfobutylpyridinium hydrosulphate.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2019.103741

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2019 Vol.65 No.4, pp.267 - 279

Accepted: 23 Dec 2018
Published online: 26 Nov 2019 *

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