Heavy metal partitioning from electronic scrap during thermal End-of-Life treatment

Samples of identical Printed Wiring Board Assemblies (PWBA) have been thermally treated in a Quartz Tube Reactor (QTR) in order to detect the volatility of selected heavy metals contained in electronic scrap being of environmental concern. In preparation, evaporation experiments were performed using a Thermo Gravimeter (TG) in connection with an Inductively Coupled Plasma– Optical Emissions Spectrometer (ICP–OES). The QTR experiments were performed under reducing and under oxidising conditions at 550 and at 880 °C. The volatilisation has been determined for As, Cd, Ni, Ga, Pb, and Sb using ICP–OES analysis of the ash residues. The results were evaluated by thermodynamic equilibrium calculations, the TG–ICP measurements and in comparison with similar studies. In coincidence with the preparative TG–ICP measurements as well as with thermodynamic equilibrium calculations neither As nor Cd could be detected in the residuals of the thermally treated PWBA samples, suggesting a high volatility of these metals. Ga does not show a distinct volatilisation mechanism and seems to be incorporated in the siliceous fraction. Ni remains as stable compound in the bottom ash. Sb shows a high volatility nearly independent of temperature and oxygen supply. The results imply that, if electronic scrap is thermally processed, attention has to be paid in particular to Sb, As, and Ga. These metals are increasingly used in new electronic equipment such as mobile phone network equipment of the third generation.