Antimony leaching in plastics from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) with various acids and gamma irradiation

Journal Article · Sat Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WASMAN.2013.03.002· OSTI ID:22304598

Tostar, Sandra ^[1]; Stenvall, Erik; Boldizar, Antal ^[2]

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1. Department of Industrial Materials Recycling, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg (Sweden)
2. Department of Material and Manufacturing Technology, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg (Sweden)

Highlights: • We have proposed a method to recover antimony from electronic plastics. • The most efficient acid solution was sodium hydrogen tartrate in dimethyl sulfoxide. • Gamma irradiation did not influence the antimony leaching ability. - Abstract: There has been a recent interest in antimony since the availability in readily mined areas is decreasing compared to the amounts used. It is important in many applications such as flame retardants and in the production of polyester, which can trigger an investigation of the leachability of antimony from plastics using different acids. In this paper, different types of acids are tested for their ability to leach antimony from a discarded computer housing, made of poly(acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), which is a common plastic type used in electrical and electronic equipment. The acid solutions included sodium hydrogen tartrate (0.5 M) dissolved in either dimethyl sulfoxide or water (at ca. 23 °C and heated to ca. 105 °C). The metal content after leaching was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The most efficient leaching medium was the heated solution of sodium hydrogen tartrate in dimethyl sulfoxide, which leached almost half of the antimony from the poly(acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). Gamma irradiation, which is proposed to improve the mechanical properties in plastics, was used here to investigate the influence of antimony leaching ability. No significant change in the amount of leached antimony could be observed.

• OSTI ID: 22304598
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Vol. 33, Issue 6; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2013 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES, AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ACRYLONITRILE
ANTIMONY
BUTADIENE
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
GAMMA RADIATION
IRRADIATION
LEACHING
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
PLASTICS
POLYESTERS
SOLUTIONS
TARTRATES
WASTES
WATER