E-waste recycling practices: a review on environmental concerns, remediation and technological developments with a focus on printed circuit boards

The reuse of electronic components from waste printed circuit boards: a critical review

“…19 WPCBs are then divided into bare boards and ECs for the deep processing step. 20 In the deep treatment stage, researchers have developed mechanical, 21 pyrogenic, 22 pyrolysis, 23 wet, [24][25][26] bioleaching, [27][28][29] and many other methods for resource recovery of WPCBs. For example, Wang et al 30 proposed a process to recover copper from PCBs by froth otation and oxidative leaching to increase the copper grade from 38.70% to 68.34%.…”

What happens when a Pb–Sn coating deposited on low carbon steel is exposed in an HCl‐polluted wet environment? Development of a corrosion mechanism

“…[ 50 ] The fact of having the two elements Pb and Sn also tends to promote oxidation as shown by Equation (13): the presence of tin promotes the oxidation of lead and it is possible to form SnO 2 from SnO via the presence of lead. [ 6 ] As the PbO solubility is high in HCl, the interaction between the two elements improves consequently the formation of cerussite, a bulky and fragile corrosion product. That is why CO 2 is qualified as a contaminant in electronic [ 51 ] and attention is paid to the storage of the Pb–Sn alloy in sliding bearing.…”

“…[3,4] Nevertheless, recent research using the Pb-Sn alloy has demonstrated the recycling of valuable Pb and Sn elements from electronic waste. [5][6][7] More generally, the Pb-Sn alloys are used in a lot of domains: Pb-Sb alloy is used as grid materials in lead-acid batteries [8] because of its good casting and deep cycling properties, [9] as shielding materials for highly penetrating radiations of gamma rays during the reactions occurring in nuclear reactors [10] or as a lubricating coating. [11] As it is used in many domains, the Pb-Sn alloy can be exposed to different environments, potentially corrosive.…”

Glassy Powder Derived from Waste Printed Circuit Boards for Methylene Blue Adsorption

“…So, even if recycling e-waste and reusing their components, with a similar purpose to the original one, remain the preferred approaches, the recovery of all the components is often hindered by the intricate nature of electronic devices [ 5 ]. Extended activities in research and procedure optimization have been performed in this sense, leading to the development of specific recycling chains, after the preliminary steps of dismantling, sorting, and mechanical pretreatment (such as shredding and crushing) [ 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

“…The polymeric components are mainly thermoset resins and reinforcement materials, which can barely be recycled because their crosslinked structure makes their melting impossible using conventional processes. Traditionally, these materials are landfilled or incinerated, but recently their recovery and use as fillers for epoxy or polypropylene resin products, such as paints, adhesives, decorating agents, and building materials, have been proposed [ 8 , 23 , 24 ].…”