title: Separation of polycarbonate and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene waste plastics by froth flotation combined with ammonia pretreatment.
abstract: The objective of this research is flotation separation of polycarbonate (PC) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) waste plastics combined with ammonia pretreatment. The PC and ABS plastics show similar hydrophobicity, and ammonia treatment changes selectively floatability of PC plastic while ABS is insensitive to ammonia treatment. The contact angle measurement indicates the dropping of flotation recovery of PC is ascribed to a decline of contact angle. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates reactions occur on PC surface, which makes PC surface more hydrophilic. Separation of PC and ABS waste plastics was conducted based on the flotation behavior of single plastic. At different temperatures, PC and ABS mixtures were separated efficiently through froth flotation with ammonia pretreatment for different time (13 min at 23 °C, 18 min at 18 °C and 30 min at 23 °C). For both PC and ABS, the purity and recovery is more than 95.31% and 95.35%, respectively; the purity of PC and ABS is up to 99.72% and 99.23%, respectively. PC and ABS mixtures with different particle sizes were separated effectively, implying that ammonia treatment possesses superior applicability.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Resources Chemistry of Nonferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Chong-Qing
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Resources Chemistry of Nonferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China. Electronic address: huiwang1968@163.com.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Resources Chemistry of Nonferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Resources Chemistry of Nonferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Gang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Resources Chemistry of Nonferrous Metals, Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China. Electronic address: liuyounian@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: You-Nian
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000180:Acrylic Resins / Q000737:chemistry*; D000641:Ammonia / Q000737:chemistry*; D002070:Butadienes / Q000737:chemistry*; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D010969:Plastics / Q000737:chemistry; D011076:Polycarboxylate Cement / Q000737:chemistry*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000180:Acrylic Resins; D002070:Butadienes; D010969:Plastics; D011076:Polycarboxylate Cement; D011137:Polystyrenes; D062611:Solid Waste; C005506:polycarbonate; D000641:Ammonia; C024636:ABS resin
keywords: Ammonia treatment; Flotation separation; Recycling; Waste plastics