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The strategic metal indium is recovered from solutions containing tin and lead that are typical of those obtained from leach solutions of metal component fractions of electronic waste including the leach solutions from indium tin oxide thin film conductive layers that contain only indium and tin. Almost total recovery of the metals can be achieved from nitric, perchloric and acetic acid leach solutions using a novel cylindrical mesh electrode electrolysis cell under appropriate conditions. The optimum separation of indium from tin and lead is achieved by a novel three-stage process from nitric acid media in the presence of SCN− as a complexing agent. Lead is removed from dilute indium-tin-lead solutions in the first stage from 0.1 mol L−1 nitric acid solution by electrodeposition over an 8 h period in the absence of SCN− to give a residual solution containing a maximum of 2 mg L−1 of lead (97% recovery). Tin is removed in the second stage by electrodeposition over an 8 h period from the solution after addition of 0.02 mol L−1 SCN− to give a maximum residual electrolyte tin concentration of 3 mg L−1 (94% recovery). In the third stage indium is recovered at the anode of the cylindrical mesh electrode cell as an oxy-hydroxide phase by increasing the SCN− concentration to 0.1 mol L−1 and carrying out the electrolysis for a period of 24 h to give a residual solution containing 1 mg L−1 of indium (98% recovery). We acknowledge the support of an EPSRC/LINK WMR3 grant (GR/L03217) with Fluid Dynamics International Limited. We wish to thank Aleppo University for a scholarship to NY and Professor. J. D. Donaldson for all his advice and support.

This study focused on the characterization and properties of transparent and conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films deposited in argon atmosphere. ITO thin films were coated onto glass substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique at 75 and 100 W RF powers. Structural characteristics of producing films were investigated through X-ray diffraction analysis. UV–Vis spectrophotometer and interferometer were used to determine transmittance, absorbance and reflectance values of samples. The surface morphology of the films was characterized by atomic force microscope. The calculated band gaps were 3.8 and 4.1 eV for the films at 75 and 100 W, respectively. The effect of RF power on crystallinity of prepared films was explored using mentioned analysis methods. The high RF power caused higher poly crystallinity in the produced samples. The thickness and refractive index values for all samples increased respect to an increment of RF power and were calculated as 20, 50 nm and 1.71, 1.86 for samples at 75 and 100 W, respectively. Finally, the estimated grain sizes for all prepared films decreased with increasing of 2? degrees, and the number of crystallite per unit volume was calculated. It was found that nearly all properties including sheet resistance and resistivity depend on the RF power. © 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Correlation of charge state of Mn with the increase in resistivity with Mn concentration is demonstrated in Mn-doped indium tin oxide films. Bonding analysis shows that Mn 2p3/2 core level can be deconvoluted into three components corresponding to Mn2+ and Mn4+ with binding energies 640.8 eV and 642.7 eV, respectively, and a Mn2+ satellite at ?5.4 eV away from the Mn2+ peak. The presence of the satellite peak unambiguously proves that Mn exists in the +2 charge state. The ratio of concentration of Mn2+ to Mn4+ of ?4:1 suggests that charge compensation occurs in the n-type films causing the resistivity increase. � 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Thermopower measurements in a range of 300-650 K along with room temperature optical absorption and electrical resistivity studies were performed on indium oxide (IO) and indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films grown by reactive dc sputtering. The thermopower of as-grown and oxygen-annealed IO and ITO films measured in Ar ambient displayed characteristics attributable to oxygen loss. The observations were substantiated with optical absorption and electrical resistivity results. � 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.