INVESTIGATION ON ACID LEACHING OF EWASTE SCRAPS OBTAINED FROM MODEM BOXES

Electronic waste is one of the hazardous waste concerns which pose threat to the both developed and developing countries in terms of environmental pollution. Generation of electronic waste is increasing year by year globally and it is important to treat the e-waste properly. Electronic waste contains materials such as Al, Ag, Cu including hazardous materials such as lead in various electronic waste products. In this work integrated circuit chips, header pins and edge connectors from modem e-waste are selected for the investigation due to the availability of precious metals in them. Experiments were conducted on these selected components by acid leaching followed by elemental analysis by ICP-OES. The components for the acid leaching were removed from PCBs of computer modem boxes by de-soldering method. The acid leaching experiment on header pin was conducted using 200ml of HNO3 solution. The leaching experiment on IC chip was carried out using aqua regia solution containing 25ml of HNO3 and 120 ml of HCl. The precipitation was done using sodium metabisulfite (Na₂S₂O₅). The elements in output residue obtained from acid leaching were identified using ICP-OES.