Abstract

Recovery of Cu, Au, Ag and Other Metals from E Waste PCB By Hydrometallurgical and Electrometallurgical Route

Author(s): Subir Paul*, Anish Roy

With progress of development mobile phones, computers and digital world , the older electronic products became junk and form E-waste. It creates environment hazards by interacting with water body and air in domestic and industrial sectors. Accumulation of growing E-waste is a real problem in the developed and developing countries. On the other hand, Electronic waste contain valuable metals such as Au, Ag, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn which if economically extracted will not only create a new job world and boost economy but also minimize the health hazards due to this. In the present investigation , PCB from the mother board of the computer are treated hydrometallurgy and electrometallurgy techniques to get pure metals Au, Ag, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn separately . The ideal conditions of hydrometallurgical process was found out by constructing combined E-PH diagrams of base metals and precious metals . The deposition potential which is a function of metal ion concentration, pH, overvoltage, standard electrode potential is computed for each metal. Metals were separetly electrodeposited at cathode by varying the applied potential according to the right deposition potential of a particular metal. The recovery of the metals were 80-90%.