CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results and observations are presented and discussed in this chapter. The detailed
calculations and analysis reports are included in the appendix.

4.1 . Material Characterization

The waste printed circuit board samples were collected from different computer shops and
electronic suppliers in Iligan City. Manual sorting and cutting into required sizes were done prior
to metal characterization.

From the XRF analysis conducted, the percent metal content of the PCBs were determined
and presented in the table below.

(insert table)

The XRF analysis shows that the major metal constituent of the PCBs is Copper, comprising
20% of the material by weight. The analysis confirms that the significant amount of copper present
in the PCBs makes it feasible for copper recovery. Other significant metal constituents are Lead,
Tin, Al and blabla. The full XRF analysis is presented in the appendix of this paper.

The size of the whole PCB ranges from 10cm by 12cm. After shredding, the size of the
irregularly shaped PCB ranges from 1cm by 2cm; which is the feed raw material for the leaching
experiment

4.2 NaOH Pre-treatment

Prior to leaching, a method of removing chemical coating and epoxy resin by NaOH
treatment is conducted (Adhapure et. al and Jadhav et. al, ) It was observed that after an incubation
period of 24 hours, the color of the solution significantly changed from an off-white solution to a
dark grayish solution as seen below. This dark solution indicates the removal of the coating and
epoxy resins from the material.

(insert picture)

Also, the presence of exposed copper is observed at the surface of some PCBs after the
NaOH treatment. This shows the effectiveness of the NaOH pre-treatment in removing chemical
coating and epoxy resins to expose copper. This ensures that the leaching agent will reach copper
without the inhibitions of the coatings and epoxy resins. The same observations were remarked by
Adhapure et. al and Jadhav et. al in their study,

4.3 Copper Recovery

Table 4.1. Average copper extracted from the waste PCBs

% vol NaOCl M HCl Sample Copper Extraction, ppm

0.5 A1B1 32.755

0 1 A2B1 32.615

1.5 A3B1 25.775

0.5 A1B2 1031.695

5 1 A2B2 719.415

1.5 A3B2 81.555

0.5 A1B3 3663.83

10 1 A2B3 2643.57

1.5 A3B3 4085.14