No abstract

This work examines the leaching of printed circuit boards (PCBs) from cell phones in aqueous solutions containing HF + H 2 O 2 or HF + NaClO under mild experimental conditions. The PCBs were not ground but were previously treated with 6 mol L -1 NaOH at 50 o C for 1 h to remove their soldering mask. , respectively. The processing of the solid residue is also described in detail. It was leached with water at ~90 o C followed by HNO 3aq. at 25 o C. Lead, palladium and silver were recovered in this order, leaving gold as final solid. After 1 h at [35][36][37][38][39][40] o C, 5 mol L -1 HF + 0.3 mol L -1 NaClO mixtures leached the base metals, copper, gold and palladium. Gold was recovered by liquid-liquid extraction with methyl isobutyl ketone. Silver precipitated as chloride. This salt was isolated by leaching with NH 3aq . Loss of fluoride ions (as HF) was below 0.5 wt.% after leaching and handling the solid residue.

Recebido em 31/5/12; aceito em 5/10/12; publicado na web em 18/2/13 PROCESSING OF PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS OF SMALL ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES. A hydrometallurgical process applicable to printed circuit boards of small electrical and electronic devices was developed. This involved three leaching steps (60 o C, 2 h): 6 mol L-1 NaOH, 6 mol L-1 HCl and aqua regia. NaOH removed the resin and flame retardant that covered the circuit boards. HCl dissolved the most electropositive metals and a small amount of copper (~0.3 wt%). Aqua regia dissolved the noble metals. Silver precipitated as AgCl. Gold and platinum were quantitatively extracted with pure methylisobutylketone and Alamine 336 (10 % vol. in kerosene), respectively. Slow evaporation of the raffinate crystallized CuCl 2 .4H 2 O (89% yield).