Selective Leaching Process of Precious Metals (Au, Ag, etc.) from Waste Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)

廢 PCBs부터 귀금속(Au, Ag 등)의 선택적 침출공정

This study was carried out to recover gold, silver and valuable metals from the printed circuit boards (PCBs) of waste computers. PCBs samples were crushed under 1 mm by a shredder and separated into 30% conducting and loft nonconducting materials by an electrostatic separator. The conducting materials contained valuable metals which were then used as feed materials for magnetic separation. 42% of magnetic materials from the conducting materials was removed by magnetic separation as nonvaluable materials and the others, 58% of non magnetic materials, was used as leaching samples containing 0.227 mg/g Au and 0.697 mg/g Ag. Using the materials of leaching from magnetic separation, more than 95% of copper, iron, zinc, nickel and aluminium was dissolved in 2.0M sulfuric acid solution, added with 0.2M hydrogen peroxide at $85^{\circ}C$. Au and Ag were not extracted in this solution. On the other hand, more than 95% of gold and 100% of silver were leached by the selective leaching with a mixed solvent (0.2M($NH_4$)$_2$$S_2$$O_3$,0.02M $CuSO_4$,0.4M $NH_4$OH). Finally, the residues were reacted with a NaCl solution to leach Pb whereas sulfuric acid was used to leach Sn. Recoveries reached 95% and 98% in solution, respectively.

본 연구는 폐컴퓨터 인쇄회로기판으로부터 Au와 Ag 및 유가금속을 회수하기 위해 수행하였다. 시료는 슈레더를 사용하여 1 mm이하 입자로 분쇄한 후 정전선별하여 약 70%의 부도체를 분리제거하고, 회수된 30%의 도체는 자력선별에 사용하였다. 자력선별에 의해 42%의 자성체는 제거되고 58%의 비자성체를 유가물 침출 원료로 사용하였으며, 비자성체의 Au및 Ag의 함량은 각각 0.227mg/g, 0.697 mg/g 이였다. 회수된 물질로부터 Cu, Fe, Zn, Ni, Al를 침출분리하기 위해 황산과 과산화수소수를 혼합한 침출용매를 사용하였다. 2.0M 황산, 0.2M과산화수소수, 반응온도 $85^{\circ}C$에서 95%이상의 Cu, 로n, Fe, Ni, Al를 침출 할 수 있었으며, Au와 Ag는 침출되지 않았다. 반면에 황산침출 후 잔사로부터 Au, Ag의 선택적인 침출을 위해 혼합용매(0.2M(NH$_4$)$_2$S$_2$O$_3$, 0.02M $CusO_4$,0.4M NH$_4$OH)를 사용하였을 때 Ag는 100%, Au는 95%이상 침출하였다 또한 최종 잔사로부터 Pb침출은 NaCl용액을, Sn침출은 황산용액을 사용하였으며 침출율은 각각 95%, 98%를 나타냈다.