Primary study on the recovery of lead from waste flexible X/Gamma ray shielding materials using pyrolysis

Lead is typically utilized for X/gamma ray shielding and hazard dosage diminishing. The improper recycling of lead can cause serious hazards to the environment and human beings. In contrast, the recycling of lead from gamma-ray shielding materials with high metal content can be used as a secondary metal source, which contributes to the regulated accumulation and environment protection. Therefore, primary study on lead recovery from waste flexible Vinyl-Methyl-Silicone based gamma-ray shielding materials is conducted. The effects of pyrolysis temperature and heating rate on the lead recovery rates were analyzed. With the optimized pyrolysis conditions, 57.40 wt% lead was obtained at a pyrolysis temperature of 300 °C and duration of 15 min. The solid product is mainly a mixture of lead and lead oxides.