Recovery of Tin and Copper by Recycling of Printed Circuit Boards from Obsolete Computers

This paper presents the experimental results for the leaching of printed circuit boards (PCB) from obsolete computers for extracting and recovering tin and copper by means of leaching followed by precipitation. Printed circuit boards were dismantled, cut into small pieces, and fed into a cylinder mill. The powder obtained was leached by using the aqueous solutions 2.18N H2SO4, 2.18N H2SO4 + 3.0N HCl, 3.0N HCl, and 3.0N HCl + 1.0N HNO3. The lowest values for the percentage of metal extraction were obtained with 2.18N H2SO4 (2.7% for Sn and lower than 0.01% for Cu), while the 3.0N HCl + 1.0N HNO3 leach system exhibited an extraction of 98% for Sn and 93% for Cu. Precipitates were obtained at different pH values by neutralizing the leach liquors using NaOH. The 3.0N HCl + 1.0N HNO3 leach system presented the highest recovery values from the powder feed (84.1% for Sn and 31.9% for Cu), as well as from the leach liquor (85.8% for Sn and 34.3% for Cu).