Novel application of the nonmetallic fraction of the recycled printed circuit boards as a toxic heavy metal adsorbent

Pejman Hadi, Ping Gao, John P. Barford, Gordon McKay*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

101 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) constitute one of the major sources of toxicity in landfill areas throughout the world. Hence, PCB recycling and separation of its metallic and nonmetallic components has been considered a major ecological breakthrough. Many studies focus on the metallic fraction of the PCBs due to its economic benefits whereas the nonmetallic powder (NMP) has been left isolated. In this work, the feasibility of using NMP as an adsorbent to remove charged toxic heavy metal ions have been studied and its efficiency has been compared with two widely-used commercial adsorbents. The results indicated that the virgin NMP material has no adsorption capacity, while the application of an activation stage to modify the NMP process has a significant effect on its porosity and thus adsorption capacity. The Cu and Pb removal capacity of the activated sample (A-NMP) at a pH level of 4 was 3. mmol and 3.4. mmol per gram of the adsorbent, respectively, which was considerably higher than the commercial ones.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)166-170
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Hazardous Materials
Volume252-253
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 May 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Adsorption
  • Toxic heavy metal removal
  • Waste printed circuit board
  • Wastewater treatment

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