Leaching of Pb and Sn from the resin of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) accessories

Abstract

The rapid increase of waste electric & electronic equipments (WEEEs) such as used PCs, cellular phones, printers, and LCD monitors cause serious environmental problems. New technological innovation continues to accelerate the replacement of equipment leading to a significant increase of waste printed circuit boards (PCBs). Nevertheless, the waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) present in WEEEs are very important secondary resources since they contain valuable metals. The ever-increasing amount of electronic scrap as well as ever-growing environmental awareness is created the mandatory requirement for the development of resources recirculation technology which meets the need for environmental requirements as well as conservation of resources. The present work aims the leaching and recovery of hazardous metals viz. lead, tin etc from the liberated epoxy resin obtained after the separation of metals from the organic swelled PCBs.