I. Masavetas, A. Moutsatsou, E. Nikolaou, S.Spanou, A. Zoikis-Karathanasis, E.A. Pavlatou, N. Spyrellis
Global NEST Journal (2009), 11 (2), 241-247
During the last years, the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are gathering attention, as a very special section of waste. In fact, they have been proven to be source for the recovery of metals. In the present study printed circuit boards (PCBs) were cut and treated thermally at 500°C for 1h in both air and nitrogen atmosphere. The obtained material was dissolved in three different acid media HNO3(aq), HCl(aq) and H2SO4(aq), in order to extract copper. The achieved Cu recovery percentages were 97.5, 65 and 76.5% respectively. Electrodeposition technique was applied in order to recover copper in powder form. More than 98% of copper was recovered achieved by application of high current density resulting to dendritic structure of copper. The applied process was characterised by a high current efficiency and led to the production of copper powder of 80μm mean diameter appropriate for powder metallurgy applications.
doi: 10.30955/gnj.000595