Extraction of copper from small electronic devices populated on discarded PCBs

Abstract

With the technological development, the demand for electric and electronic equipment (EEE) is increasing rapidly worldwide. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) is one of the essential parts of all the EEEs which contains large number of small components for different applications. Huge amount of such small components are generated during PCBs production as well as after its end of life. Recycling and reuse of these devices from waste circuit boards is essential to conserve the resources and avoid environmental problem. Present study shows the recovery of valuable copper from small electronic devices such as capacitor, LED, MOSFET etc populated on discarded PCBs. The crushed samples were leached using nitric acid. 99% copper dissolution was observed at elevated temperature, pulp density of 15g/L in 60 min with stirring speed of 300 rpm. The metals or its salt can be further produced from the leach liquor by the process of precipitation, evaporation, solvent extraction etc.