Sustainable Recycling of Copper from Printed Circuit Boards with Iminodiacetamide Resin─Transformation from Electronic Scrap to Copper Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Recycling of metals from end-of-life products (urban mining) has been one of the major targets of long-term environment management, which becomes impressively rewarding if it culminates in the production of technologically significant materials. To this end, a process has been developed for selective separation and recovery of copper (Cu) from printed circuit boards (PCBs) with a novel iminodiacetamide (IDA) resin and its direct upcycling to copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs), which has found immense applications in various futuristic fields such as rocket propellants, semiconductors, battery electrode materials, antifouling agents in ships, antiviral/antibacterial materials, etc. Briefly, depopulated PCBs were first treated chemically for maximum leaching of Cu in aqueous medium (leach liquor). IDA resin was then used for selective separation and recovery of Cu from the acidic leach liquor, with very high loading capacity ∼ 70 mg/g of Cu. Finally, the quantitative recovery of Cu from the stripping solution of IDA resin and direct conversion to CuO NPs (purity >99.5%) were achieved, confirmed through SEM−EDX and XRD techniques. This work thus reports the first full transformation of copper from electronic scraps to high-value material CuO NPs.