title: Separating and recycling metals from mixed metallic particles of crushed electronic wastes by vacuum metallurgy.
abstract: During the treatment of electronic wastes, a crushing process is usually used to strip metals from various base plates. Several methods have been applied to separate metals from nonmetals. However, mixed metallic particles obtained from these processes are still a mixture of various metals, including some toxic heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. With emphasis on recovering copper and other precious metals, there have hitherto been no satisfactory methods to recover these toxic metals. In this paper, the criterion of separating metals from mixed metallic particles by vacuum metallurgy is built. The results show that the metals with high vapor pressure have been almost recovered completely, leading to a considerable reduction of environmental pollution. In addition, the purity of copper in mixed particles has been improved from about 80 wt % to over 98 wt %.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong chuan Road, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhan
authors.forename: Zhenming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D002104:Cadmium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D003300:Copper / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004581:Electronics; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D008669:Metallurgy / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D008670:Metals / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000737:chemistry*; D011312:Pressure; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014618:Vacuum; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction; D015032:Zinc / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D008670:Metals; D052638:Particulate Matter; D014866:Waste Products; D002104:Cadmium; D003300:Copper; D015032:Zinc