TY - JOUR

T1 - Determining Metal Content in Waste Printed Circuit Boards and their Electronic Components

AU - Anić-Vučinić, Aleksandra

AU - Bedeković, Gordan

AU - Sarc, Renato

AU - Premur, Vitomir

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020, International Centre for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems SDEWES. All rights reserved.

PY - 2020/9

Y1 - 2020/9

N2 - A wide range of published scientific articles on metal content in printed circuit boards show that it is necessary to determine the content of individual metals. The aim of this paper is to show how metal content varies according to the type and age of waste electrical and electronic equipment collected in the Republic of Croatia. Samples of cell phones, TV sets, and computers are collected. The metal content is determined for electronic components and printed circuit board base plates separately for different grain sizes (1-4 mm, 0.5-1 mm, 0.1-0.5 mm and < 0.1 mm). The results show that electronic components form a larger part of printed circuit board mass fraction depending on the equipment age and type. Generally, electronic components do have a higher mass fraction for most metals (like: aluminium, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, and silver in most cases) in comparison to printed circuit board base plates, but for certain metals (like: lead, tin) the opposite applies. The electronic components of larger grain sizes (1-4 mm and 0.5-1 mm) contain more aluminium, copper, and zinc, and less lead, while the smaller grain size fractions are richer in gold. The bare boards base plates of larger grain sizes contain more copper, lead and tin, while the smallest grain size class (< 0.1 mm) contains more aluminium and gold. No clear trends are noticed in the case of silver and lead.

AB - A wide range of published scientific articles on metal content in printed circuit boards show that it is necessary to determine the content of individual metals. The aim of this paper is to show how metal content varies according to the type and age of waste electrical and electronic equipment collected in the Republic of Croatia. Samples of cell phones, TV sets, and computers are collected. The metal content is determined for electronic components and printed circuit board base plates separately for different grain sizes (1-4 mm, 0.5-1 mm, 0.1-0.5 mm and < 0.1 mm). The results show that electronic components form a larger part of printed circuit board mass fraction depending on the equipment age and type. Generally, electronic components do have a higher mass fraction for most metals (like: aluminium, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, and silver in most cases) in comparison to printed circuit board base plates, but for certain metals (like: lead, tin) the opposite applies. The electronic components of larger grain sizes (1-4 mm and 0.5-1 mm) contain more aluminium, copper, and zinc, and less lead, while the smaller grain size fractions are richer in gold. The bare boards base plates of larger grain sizes contain more copper, lead and tin, while the smallest grain size class (< 0.1 mm) contains more aluminium and gold. No clear trends are noticed in the case of silver and lead.

KW - Electrical and electronic equipment

KW - Metal content

KW - Printed circuit boards

KW - Recycling

KW - Waste

KW - Recycling

KW - Metallgehalt

KW - Elektroaltgeräte

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090630940&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.13044/j.sdewes.d7.0312

DO - 10.13044/j.sdewes.d7.0312

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85090630940

VL - 8.2020

SP - 590

EP - 602

JO - Journal of sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems

JF - Journal of sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems

SN - 1848-9257

IS - 3

ER -