Simultaneous utilization of copper and non-metals from waste integrated circuits for precious metal melting capture and organics thermal detoxification

Waste integrated circuits, with underlying resource attributes and environmental risks, are complex in composition. Current processes suffer from high resource inputs, excessive pollutant emissions and incomplete treatment of varied species. Therefore, a comprehensive resource recycling and safe disposal process integrated with precious metal enrichment, non-metal resource utilization, and organic detoxification was proposed. The copper and non-metals from waste ICs served as in-situ precious metal collector, slagging former and reducing agent for alternative to partial chemical inputs. Batch experiments indicated that optimized parameters enabled the recycling efficiencies of 94.3 %, 96.8 % and 98.4 % for copper, gold and silver, respectively. Meanwhile, oxide component, yielded as silicate slag, was synthesized into glass ceramics via high-temperature sintering. Furthermore, organic conversion process revealed that high-temperature smelting catalyzed bromine removal and contaminant detoxification, with decomposed reductive hydrocarbons facilitating metal capture in turn. And the capture mechanism was disclosed form thermodynamics and microdroplet motion perspectives. As process evaluation indicates, proposed recycling route allows remarkable reductions in negative environmental response and economic investment. In this work, metal recycling, waste minimization and pollutant detoxification were attained synergistically without residue, which contributes a novel insight into the disposal of comparable e-wastes.