Leaching of gold and silver from printed circuit board of mobile phones

Abstract

Nowadays there is a wide variety of models, sizes and configurations of mobile phones available for consumption. After the life cycle of this equipment, the recycling and reuse of the precious metals found in the printed circuit boards (PCB) of the mobile phones are principal objectives. Thus, the objective of this work was to characterize the gold and silver present in a PCB and develop a recycling route using alternative reagents for cyanide, such as sodium and ammonium thiosulfate. These reagents are less harmful to the environment and worker health. The first characterization of gold and silver was performed with aqua regia. The results show 86.26g Au/ton of PCBs and 123.85g Ag/ton of PCBs. The second characterization was performed with a commercial cyanide-based reagent and 112.02g Au/ton of PCBs and 26.13g Ag/ ton of PCBs were obtained. A leaching study with solutions based on thiosulfate was performed and an extraction of 9.02g Au/ton of PCBs and 33.88g Ag/ton of PCBs was obtained, compared to characterization results using a cyanide-based reagent.