Recovery of Metals from Anodic Dissolution Slime of Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment(WEEE) by Extraction in Ionic Liquids

The recovery of metals from a multi-component alloy obtained by crushing, melting and anodic dissolution of waste from electric and electronic equipment(WEEE) was investigated. The anodic dissolution of the alloy was carried out in an electrolysis cell with one copper cathode and a central cast anode, immersed in the electrolyte formed by choline chloride-ethylene glycol-iodine. The temperature of the electrolyte during the process was 343 K. Depending on the electrolysis parameters(current density and cell voltage), cathodic deposits of Sn, Pb and Zn of >99% purity were obtained. Cyclic voltammetry was used in order to determine the deposition potentials of the studied metals. The obtained metallic deposits were subject of determination of XRD, SEM/EDX and AFM in order to evidence the deposits structure and morphology. The experiments performed demonstrated the possibility of separating/selective recovery of metals from the multi-component alloy resulted from the waste from electrical and electronic equipment by anodic dissolution in ionic liquids.