Recovery and Separation of Valuable Metals from Waste Printed Circuit Board-recent Advances and Outlook

With the rapid development of electronics industry, a great quantity of waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been generated. Waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) is an important component in the WEEE, and contains a large quantity of valuable metals. Traditional recycling technologies of waste PCBs, focusing on the recycling of precious metals (e.g., gold, silver, platinum and palladium), cause problems such as polluting the environment and wasting resources. In addition to precious metals, there are a lot of other valuable metals in the waste PCBs (e.g., copper, zinc, nickel, lead and tin etc.), but comprehensive separation and recovery of these valuable metals in waste PCBs is still a challenge. It is urgent to develop comprehensive recycling technologies to recover valuable metals from waste PCBs, to realize harmless and resourceful treatment of waste PCBs. This paper overviews current status and recent advances in the technologies for recycling and separation of valuable metals from waste PCBs in China and abroad. Some suggestions on recycling of valuable metals in waste PCBs are also proposed.