Hydrometallurgical treatment of used pri

The hydrometallurgical route of copper and tin extraction from printed circuit boards (PCB) of used personal computers after thermal pretreatment is discussed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of different thermal treatments and their impact on metal extraction. To achieve this, PCB fractions were crushed and sorted into different sizes and subjected to thermal pretreatment at varying temperatures of 300, 500, 700, and 900°C for 15, 30, and 60 minutes. Following pretreatment, a leaching solution of 1 M HCl at 80°C was utilized. Results indicated that weight losses due to burning ranged from 5% to 35% depending on the temperature. Notably, copper extraction into solution increased dramatically to 98% with higher burning temperatures, whereas non-burned samples yielded only up to 6%. Conversely, tin leaching demonstrated the highest extraction from original samples, with increased burning temperature correlating to decreased copper extraction. These findings illustrate the complex interactions between thermal treatment and metal recovery in hydrometallurgical processes.