Low Temperature Pyrolysis and Exfoliation of Waste Printed Circuit Boards: Recovery of High Purity Copper Foils

Elanjikkal Indran Anjana, Kalidoss Jayasankar (), Rita Khanna (), Jayapalan Venkatesan, Yury V. Konyukhov and Partha Sarathy Mukherjee
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Elanjikkal Indran Anjana: Materials Science & Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695019, India
Kalidoss Jayasankar: Materials Science & Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695019, India
Rita Khanna: School of Materials Science and Engineering (Ret.), The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia
Jayapalan Venkatesan: Materials Science & Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695019, India
Yury V. Konyukhov: Department of Enrichment and Processing of Minerals and Technogenic Raw Materials, National University of Science and Technology “MISIS”, Moscow 119049, Russia
Partha Sarathy Mukherjee: Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (Ret.), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bhubaneshwar 751013, India

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: Although several techniques have been developed to extract copper from waste printed circuit boards (PCBs), there remain several challenges regarding energy consumption, local area contamination and environmental damage. A novel technique has been developed for extracting copper foils from waste PCBs based on low temperature pyrolysis followed by exfoliation to overcome these issues. The standard pretreatment steps of removing electronic components from PCBs and mechanical processing/size-reduction/powdering, etc., were minimized in this study. Several unsorted ‘as received’ PCBs were heat treated in the temperature range 750–850 °C for 5–20 min. in an argon atmosphere. Brittle dark chars and other residues on the heat-treated specimens were scrapped off to separate copper foils and other residuals. Most of the electronic components mounted on PCBs had dropped off during the heat treatment. Good-quality copper foils were recovered in all cases; the purity of copper was in excess of 85 wt.%. Key impurities present were Pb, Sn and Zn with typical concentrations less than 4 wt.%. Key features of the technique include minimizing energy intensive pre-treatment processes and waste handling, low pyrolysis temperatures and short heating times. This energy-efficient approach has the potential to enhance resource recovery while reducing the loss of materials, local area contamination and pollution near e-waste processing facilities.

Keywords: electronic waste; PCBs; pyrolysis; electronic components; copper foils; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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