Search

Historical heritage pieces allow a better comprehension of the characteristics of different civilizations over time. The characterization of such pieces is of paramount importance for their preservation. Energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (EDXRF) is recommended for this application, mostly because it is non‐destructive and the equipment is portable. However, one of its limitations is the difficulty in separating the signal from the substrate and the coating of multilayered samples, as it does not provide depth resolution. This project investigates the application of EDXRF in the characterization of metallic coatings, in the context of historical heritage. The elemental concentration of electrodeposited Ni coatings onto carbon steel substrates was obtained from EDXRF analyses. The relationship between the layer thickness and the variation of the Kα/Kβ intensity ratio of nickel peaks was exploited and the thicknesses of the coatings were estimated through EDXRF measurements. For comparison, particle‐induced x‐ray emission spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy of the cross‐section were employed, providing a depth profile of the coatings. The estimated thicknesses from EDXRF analysis were comparable to those observed in the microscopy images for thinner films (up to 8 μm). On the other hand, for thicker films, the thicknesses were underestimated, due to the technique's depth limit and matrix effects, as secondary absorption. Despite these limitations, EDXRF remains valuable for evaluating cultural heritage pieces, often providing sufficient information to address authenticity concerns or to guide restoration processes. A case study was also performed to apply the methodology discussed on historical metallic pieces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used as a power source for portable devices and electrical vehicles (EVs). After their useful life, they can provide a secondary source from which to obtain some materials which make them up, such as lithium and cobalt. However, the metallurgical route which will be used to recover them must be considered. Therefore, is crucial that many efforts to develop more environmentally favorable recovery processes be pursued. Due to this, the present work aimed to use 1.5 M DL-malic acid and compare it to 2 M sulfuric acid, employing heat pretreatment of 1 h and 3 h to remove the powder cathode binder polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF); for all conditions, experiments were carried out with and without adding the oxidizing agent hydrogen peroxide. The PVDF temperature degradation occurred at 630 °C. The best yields occurred in the presence of H2O2 10% v/v and heat pretreatment. With sulfuric acid (1 h) it was possible to recover 33.49% Co and 4.63% Li, and (3 h) 36.36% Co and 4.64% Li. With DL-malic acid it was possible to recover (1 h) 29.78% Co and 3.44% Li, and (3 h) 32.73% Co and 3.99% Li. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a way to manage neodymium–iron–boron (NdFeB) magnets wasted in end-of-life hard disk drives (HDDs), a waste characterization is needed prior to a recycling process. Due to their magnetic properties, NdFeB magnets are essential in technological applications nowadays, thus causing an increase in the industrial demand for rare earth metals. However, these metals have a short supply, since they are difficult to obtain from ores, creating a critical market. In this work, a study of the characterization of sintered neodymium–iron–boron magnets was undertaken by qualitatively and quantitatively uncovering the neodymium recovery potential from this type of electronic waste. From the collection and disassembly of hard disk drives, in which the magnet represents less than 3% of the total weight, an efficient demagnetization process was proceeded at 320 °C. Then, the magnet was ground and screened for an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, which showed the Nd 2 Fe 14 B tetragonal phase as the dominant constituent of the sample. An analysis was also carried out in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES), where the magnet composition showed 21.5 wt% of neodymium and 65.1 wt% of iron, among other chemicals. This Nd content is higher than the one found in Nd ores, enhancing the recyclability and the importance of waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disposal of CRT monitors increases each year, generating millions of tons of waste containing various types of materials. The glass present in CRT tubes displayed about 20%-25% of lead oxide. If improperly disposed of, this glass can be leached directly in nature or may cause environmental contamination, especially with lead. Because of this leaching possibility, this waste is classified as Class I solid waste, according to the NBR 10004. Thermal processing of these glass tubes was seen as an alternative to remove lead from the glass matrix. Parameters such as reaction time, percentage of reducing agent, the reaction temperature, and atmospheric environment of the system were analyzed in this work. It was concluded that it is possible to remove the lead from the glass matrix by thermal processing. The removal of 92% of the lead from the glass was obtained at 800°C, a vacuum of 1.3 kPa, with 5% carbon as a reducing agent, and 18 hours of thermal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disposal of CRT monitors increases each year, generating millions of tons of waste containing various types of materials. The glass present in CRT tubes displayed about 20%-25% of lead oxide. If improperly disposed of, this glass can be leached directly in nature or may cause environmental contamination, especially with lead. Because of this leaching possibility, this waste is classified as Class I solid waste, according to the NBR 10004. Thermal processing of these glass tubes was seen as an alternative to remove lead from the glass matrix. Parameters such as reaction time, percentage of reducing agent, the reaction temperature, and atmospheric environment of the system were analyzed in this work. It was concluded that it is possible to remove the lead from the glass matrix by thermal processing. The removal of 92% of the lead from the glass was obtained at 800°C, a vacuum of 1.3 kPa, with 5% carbon as a reducing agent, and 18 hours of thermal processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays there is a wide variety of models, sizes and configurations of mobile phones available for consumption. After the life cycle of this equipment, the recycling and reuse of the precious metals found in the printed circuit boards (PCB) of the mobile phones are principal objectives. Thus, the objective of this work was to characterize the gold and silver present in a PCB and develop a recycling route using alternative reagents for cyanide, such as sodium and ammonium thiosulfate. These reagents are less harmful to the environment and worker health. The first characterization of gold and silver was performed with aqua regia. The results show 86.26g Au/ton of PCBs and 123.85g Ag/ton of PCBs. The second characterization was performed with a commercial cyanide-based reagent and 112.02g Au/ton of PCBs and 26.13g Ag/ ton of PCBs were obtained. A leaching study with solutions based on thiosulfate was performed and an extraction of 9.02g Au/ton of PCBs and 33.88g Ag/ton of PCBs was obtained, compared to characterization results using a cyanide-based reagent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The constant growth in generation of solid wastes stimulates studies of recycling processes. The electronic scrap is part of this universe of obsolete and/or defective materials that need to be disposed of more appropriately, or then recycled. In this work, printed circuit boards, that are part of electronic scrap and are found in almost all electro-electronic equipments, were studied. Printed circuit boards were collected in obsolete or defective personal computers that are the largest source of this kind of waste. Printed circuit boards are composed of different materials such as polymers, ceramics and metals, which makes the process more difficult. However, the presence of metals, such as copper and precious metals encourage recycling studies. Also the presence of heavy metals, as Pb and Cd turns this scrap into dangerous residues. This demonstrates the need to search for solutions of this kind of residue, in order to have it disposed in a proper way, without harming the environment. At the first stage of this work, mechanical processing was used, as comminution followed by size, magnetic and electrostatic separation. By this process it was possible to obtain a concentrated fraction in metals (mainly Cu, Pb and Sn) and another fraction containing polymers and ceramics. The copper content reached more than 50% in mass in most of the conductive fractions and significant content of Pb and Sn. At the second stage, the fraction concentrated in metals was dissolved with acids and treated in an electrochemical process in order to recover the metals separately, especially copper. The results demonstrate the technical viability of recovering copper using mechanical processing followed by an electrometallurgical technique. The copper content in solution decayed quickly in all the experiments and the copper obtained by electrowinning is above 98% in most of the tests. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Recent increases in the demand for automotive lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have led to higher needs for critical materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite. Consequently, recovering materials from spent batteries has gained importance. This study aimed to (1) develop a mechanical pretreatment method for separating and concentrating materials from spent NCM811 cells and (2) evaluate the economic, environmental, and shortage potentials of these fractions. The pretreatment involved grinding and granulometric separation, producing six particle-size fractions. The main novelty of the study was the assessment to identify the particle size fractions which are priorities for recycling for decision-making by recycling companies, optimizing their resources and efforts. Analysis showed that the finest fraction (n < 0.5 mm) had 85% of lithium, 77.4% of cobalt, 75.1% of manganese, and 68.5% of nickel. This fraction represented 40.4% of the processed mass and had the highest economic value (USD 3669/ton NCM cell). This fraction was also prioritized for recycling due to its superior environmental impact (103,788 kg CO2-eq/ton NCM cell) and scarcity considerations. Furthermore, the black mass of NCM was the priority for recycling and had greater economic, environmental, and supply risk potential than the black mass of LFP cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the recovery of materials from secondary sources is increasingly necessary because of the scarcity of materials. Significant amounts of rare earth elements (REE) are found in permanent neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, used in various electrical and electronic equipments, such as mobile phones. However, the estimated recycling rate for REEs is only 1%. Hydrometallurgical routes are the most commonly used for REE recovery from secondary sources. This route usually uses inorganic acids, which are expensive and toxic. Thus, in this work the leaching efficiency of organic acids (acetic and citric) in leaching the REE (neodymium and praseodymium) present in magnets of obsolete or defective mobile phones was evaluated. Different concentrations of acids, solid/liquid relations, times and leaching techniques (microwave, ultrasound and conventional) are also evaluated. The results indicate that acetic and citric acids have the potential to leach Nd and Pr. Microwave leaching was the most effective method, compared to ultrasound and conventional methods. In microwaves, citric acid at 0.5 M (ratio s/l 1/100) leached 57% of Nd and 58% of Pr. Acetic acid at 0.5 M (s/l ratio—1/100) leached 48% of Nd and 65% of Pr, in 15 min. Furthermore, both citric acid and acetic acid also leached high percentages of iron (51% and 72%, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, electronics industry is the leading sector in developing new technologies. These new technologies lead to cheaper products increasing the consumption. The lifetime of such products is relatively short and soon it becomes waste, known as electronic waste. Cell phone is a common electronic waste. This waste represents an interesting raw material, because it contains large amount of base metals, considerable amount of valuable metals and also those dangerous. In this work, the electronic waste was submitted to mechanical processing: initially the devices were separated into two categories, as year of release (<2001; >2002) and disassembled manually. The printed circuit boards were milled below 1 mm and then submitted to density and magnetic separation processes. The fractions obtained during the mechanical processing were characterized by chemical analysis. Using mechanical processing it was possible to obtain metal fractions of 80 wt%. A leaching test was carried out to determine if a waste needs to be managed as a hazardous; so that, cell phone waste must be considered in the category of hazardous residue because the lead concentration was above the limit established by Brazilian Standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco‐friendliness is becoming an indispensable feature for electrical and electronic equipment to thrive in the competitive market. This comprehensive review is the first to define eco‐friendly electronics in its multiple meanings: power saving devices, end‐of‐life impact attenuators, equipment whose manufacturing uses green processing, electronics that use materials that minimize environmental and health risks, designs that improve lifespan, reparability, etc. More specifically, this review discusses eco‐friendly technologies and materials that are being introduced to replace the well‐established ones. This is done for all material classes (metals, polymers, ceramics, and composites). Manufacturing, recycling, and final product characteristics are discussed in their various interconnected aspects. Additionally, the concept of consciously planned obsolescence is introduced to address the paradoxical relationship between durability and efficiency. The overall conclusions are that there is an important global trend to make electronics more eco‐friendly. However, matching the performance and stability of well‐established materials and technologies seems to be the main barrier to achieve it. These new implementations can have detrimental or beneficial net impacts on the environment. Assessing their net outcome is challenging because their impacts are frequently unknown and the current evaluation methods (and tools) are incapable of comprehensively quantifying these impacts and generating reliable verdicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides neodymium, the chemical composition of Neodymium–Iron–Boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets possibly contains other rare earth elements (REEs) such as praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium. Among its applications, NdFeB magnets are essential for Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) in computers for data storage, in Mobile Phones (MPs), and in acoustic transducers. Because REEs were classified as critical raw materials by the European Union and the USA, the recycling of them has become an important strategy to diminish supply risk. Therefore, in this publication, the authors have uncovered the recycling potential estimate (RPE) of these four REEs from both end-of-life (EoL) secondary sources. The results were based on the time-step method, using in-use stock and sales data from Brazil over the last decade (2010–2019). Moreover, the NdFeB magnets were characterized by content and weight to a more accurate RPE. The EoL generation over the decade studied showed different scenarios for MPs and HDDs, mainly due to lifespan, social behavior regarding storage and usage, and resources. Under those circumstances, the RPE revealed 211.30 t of REEs that could return as raw materials in the last decade, of which approximately 80% is neodymium. Unfortunately, recycling rates are still too low, even more so in Brazil, which is problematic for the future REE supply chain and electronic waste figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Eco-friendly processes are used to segregate and concentrate LED materials; • Critical materials (Ga, Ce, Y) were separated from other metals in different fraction; • The concentration of valuable (Au, Ag, Cu, Sn) and critical materials was enhanced; • Segregation/concentration of critical materials may lead to new recycling routes; • The proposed processes may improve the economic viability of the recycling routes; The generation of wasted LEDs is expected to grow in the coming years, raising the challenge of recycling and recovering their valuable and critical materials. Due to the low concentration of these materials, the current recycling processes available for LEDs have a significant recovery limitation. This study proposes an innovative, clean and effective physical method to segregate the valuable and critical materials into different fractions while enhancing their concentration: particle size separation followed by electrostatic separation. After the determination of the best electrostatic separation conditions (varying tension and rotation) for each particle size, the final fractions were characterized by acid digestion and ICP-OES analysis. The analysis revealed that the economically valuable elements gold, silver, copper and tin became concentrated in the conductive fractions (80.18%, 94.22%, 96.55% and 93.29% of their total recovered mass, respectively), while the strategic critical elements, gallium, cerium and yttrium became concentrated in the non-conductive fractions (96.15%, 100% and 95.20% of their total recovered mass, respectively). Despite some limitations imposed by the mass losses, this novel route may be important to uncover new recycling alternatives, mainly for critical elements, and to improve the economic viability of the recycling routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Characterization of automotive catalysts to identify the main components. • Calcination and comminution increasing exposure of PGMs for subsequent recovery. • Investigating the possibility of leaching of PGMs by using three organic acids. • Recovery of over 90% of Pt and Pd in 6 M HCl and 20% (v/v) citric acid. An efficient and environmentally friendly new process is described for the recovery of platinum group metals from spent automotive catalysts. The process consists of the application of mechanical processing followed by heat treatment and leaching, with the aim of reducing the use of acids that can have adverse effects in the environment. The extraction of PGMs was carried out using HCl associated with malic, formic, and citric acids. Evaluation was made of the effects of parameters including acid concentration, volumes of inorganic and organic acids, solid to liquid (S/L) ratio, and extraction time. The automotive catalyst powders were characterized using XRD, SEM/EDS, particle size distribution, and EDXRF techniques. The spent automotive catalysts contained reasonable concentrations of Pt and Pd. Over 90% of the Pt and Pd could be recovered in a leaching process using 6 M HCl, S/L ratio of 1:30, and 20% (v/v) citric acid. The findings showed that citric acid can be used in the recovery of PGMs from spent automotive catalysts, decreasing the use of aggressive and corrosive acids often employed in the recovery of these metals. Hence, the addition of organic acids can contribute to efficient and environmentally friendly processes for the recovery of Pt and Pd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Novel assessment of the materials distribution within tubular and bulb LED lamps; • Gold, silver and others exceed the natural ore concentrations. Found presence of lead; • LEDs are the most valuable LED lamp component, and gold the most valuable material; • Most of the gallium content is in the printed circuit boards, not in the LEDs; • Need of new recycling alternatives and eco-design to segregate the components; LED lamps have already conquered the market of general lighting. This new product will generate a substantial flow of e-waste requiring studies for the correct management, especially concerning recycling alternatives. This study proposes a material characterization of all the tubular and bulb LED lamp components (carcass, LEDs, printed circuit board and LED module). After manual disassembling, polymers were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and the metals by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and acid leaching followed by ICP-OES analysis. By the novelty of separating and characterizing the LED lamp's components, a process which has not yet been studied, the results allow for a better interpretation of the different materials distribution within the lamps which is essential to improve the efficiency of a recycling route. To exemplify, the element gallium, which has a recycling appeal from the LEDs, is present in a larger quantity in the printed circuit boards. The study also provides an analysis of the materials recycling rates and economic values, and the comparison with the concentration of natural ores. Thus, it was possible to discuss about target components and materials and the recycling alternatives for each component. LED lamps contain interesting materials, with even higher concentrations than natural ores, such as gold, silver, copper, aluminum, tin and gallium. If recycled, tubular lamps and bulb lamps would have the economic recovery of USD 2405.99 and USD 2595.02 per ton, respectively. The gold was found to be the most valuable material, and the LEDs the most valuable component of the LED lamps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the induction heating treatment process, the material is heated by a magnetic field generated by a high frequency alternating current that passes through an induc-tor. To improve the efficiency of the process, a flux concentrator, which is constituted by soft magnetic materials, is used. This flux concentrator consists of ferromagnetic components and a dielectric binder. In some industrial processes, the dimensional adjustment of this tool can cause loss of raw material and produce waste. The aim of this work was the elaboration and characterization of a magnetic composite of polymeric matrix from the waste generated by the dimensional adjustment. To pre-pare the magnetic composite, the waste was comminuted and mixed with two dif-ferent types of phenolic resin at a concentration of 3% wt. The magnetic composites obtained were characterized according to morphology, mechanical, magnetic and electrical properties and environmental characterization. The results showed that the composites presented a reduction of magnetic and mechanical properties compared to the original material. However, reduction of magnetic losses was observed for the composite obtained, highlighting the potential of this composite for use as a magnetic flux concentrator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]