Evaluation of the effect of size reduction and thermal treatment on metal extraction from PCBs of mother board and digital video drive of desktop PC

The study aims at evaluating the effect of particle size and thermal treatment on printed circuit boards (PCBs) of Mother Board (MB) and DVD on metal extraction. Results show around 90–95% (w/w) and 35–40% (w/w) of total Al and Cu respectively, in CPU could be recovered by systematized disassembly. Remaining embedded Al and Cu require metallurgical or hydro-metallurgical processing. Cu extraction increases with size reduction. Thermal treatment of MB–PCB shows reduction in Cu extraction (23–38%) for all sizes in comparison without thermal treatment, while DVD–PCB showed surge in extraction after thermal treatment (41–141%) in comparison without thermal treatment.