Thermochemical Route for Extraction and Recycling of Critical, Strategic and High-Value Elements from By-Products and End-of-Life Materials, Part II: Processing in Presence of Halogenated Atmosphere

Abstract

During the treatment of copper anode slime (CAS) under an air atmosphere, several aspects of the interactions of its main components (CuAgSe, Cu2−xSeyS1−y, Ag3AuSe2) with oxygen were described in Part I. As a comparative and complementary study, this work deals with the thermal behavior of CAS under air in the presence of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) between 195 and 770 °C. The preliminary thermal treatment of an e-waste sample containing brominated substances was also performed. The reaction products were systematically analyzed by scanning electron microscopy through energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to investigate the thermal behaviors of the studied samples in a halogenated medium. At low temperatures, the copper, silver and selenium compounds of the CAS reacted with the HCl, issued from PVC degradation, leading to the formation of their respective chlorides. Bromides of valuable metals (Cu, Pb, Sn…) were synthesized during the e-waste treatment at 500 °C and they were distributed between the solid residue and gaseous phase. The data obtained give an insight into the reactivity of several metals towards halogenated substances, which may be valuable information for conducting the extraction and recycling of targeted elements from industrial by-products and end-of-life materials by a thermochemical route.