Characterization, recovery potentiality, and evaluation on recycling major metals from waste cathode-ray tube phosphor powder by using sulphuric acid leaching.

Phosphor powder from waste cathode ray tubes (CRT) was leached by acid leaching technology, and also, “H 2 SO 4 + H 2 O 2 ” system was utilized to reduce the release of poisonous gas H 2 S into atmosphere, single-factor method was used to determine the optimal operation conditions (H 2 SO 4 concentration, the volume of H 2 O 2 and H 2 SO 4 , temperature, time and the ratio of liquid and solid). Moreover, a quantitative analysis on recovery benefits was conducted to evaluate the effect of this method. Our results demonstrated that the recovery of Y and Eu has highly positive profits, as their price reached 1018.69 CNY/kg and 380.64 CNY/kg, separately. However, the recovery of Zn and Al has negative profits was due to its lower enrichment factors (EFs) and market price in comparison with Y and Eu. In general, this technology has a great potential to recover four major metals from waste phosphor powder, about 757.04 CNY per kilogram powder economic value can be produced using this process. Therefore, using “H 2 SO 4 + H 2 O 2 ” system for recycling Zn, Al, Y and Eu is a green and sustainable technology from waste cathode-ray tube fluorescent powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]