Synthesis of Brown Inorganic Pigments with Spinel Structure from the Incorporation of Spent Alkaline Batteries

Abstract In this work, inorganic pigments were synthesized by solid state reaction, from the incorporation of components of exhausted alkaline batteries. For this, after disassembling the batteries, the components were subjected to water leaching, milling and heat treatment at high temperatures with an addition of 33% (in mol) commercial or recovered from own alkaline batteries anodes zinc oxide. The obtained pigments were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, laser diffraction particle size, and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It was concluded that incorporation of the components of batteries generally yielded brown pigments with a structure of the spinel type ZnMn2O4. SEM and particle size distribution analyses show that the addition of ZnO leads to a reduction in average grain size of the powders. The pigments when applied to color ceramic enamels, polymers and paints show good performance in the coloring of these products, with potential for commercial application.