Facile method for the selective recovery of Gd and Pr from LCD screen wastes using ultrasound-assisted leaching

• Main Authors: Astrid D. Toache-Pérez, Ana M. Bolarín-Miró, Félix Sánchez-De Jesús, Gretchen T. Lapidus
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2020-09-01
• Series: Sustainable Environment Research
• Subjects: Rare earth element recovery; Ultrasonic-assisted leaching; LCD screens; Electronic wastes
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42834-020-00060-w

Abstract Rare earth elements (REE) are essential for the production of technological devices. However, their high demand and low availability, together with an increase in electronic waste generation, compel the development of efficient, economic and green methods for recovering these elements from electronic waste. In this work, a facile method for selective recovering of REE from Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen wastes, employing ultrasound assisted leaching is presented. The screen wastes were milled and sieved to pass through a − 325 mesh sieve (44 μm). The milled powder was subjected to ultrasound-assisted leaching in an aqueous medium, at room temperature (25 °C) and pH 6 for 60 min. Subsequently, a magnetic separation was applied to the leach residue. Inductively coupled plasma was employed to quantitatively analyze the composition of the LCD powders and determine the effectiveness of the extraction process. Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy allowed qualitative chemical analysis of the solid materials. The results show that the LCD screen wastes are formed, mainly, by amorphous oxides of Si, Fe, In, Sn and REE. The amount of Gadolinium (Gd) and Praseodymium (Pr) in the wastes were 93 and 24 mg kg− 1, respectively, which justifies their recovery. X-ray diffraction analysis of the magnetic portion of the leached residue, confirmed the presence of an amorphous phase together with crystalline metallic iron alloy. The magnetic behavior, obtained by Vibration Sample Magnetometry, helped to understand the nature of the residues. The formation of this metallic alloy is attributed to the effect of high power ultrasonic during the leach. It was confirmed that the magnetic residue concentrates and recovers 87 wt% of Gd and 85 wt% of Pr contained in the original material. Therefore, ultrasound-assisted leaching is a selective and facile method for recovering Gd and Pr from waste LCD.