Recuperación de indio a partir de paneles LCD de desecho usando ácido como agente lixiviante
Technological advance has brought with it a high demand and the constant replacement of electronic devices. Many of these technological devices (e.g., cell phones, tablets, televisions, computers) use indium in the form of indium oxide and tin (ITO) for the manufacture of the liquid crystal display (LCD). Indium is an element that is not abundant in nature, it is obtained mainly through a secondary process in the extraction of zinc oxide. In 2019, about 760 metric tons of indium were produced worldwide (Garside, 2020). For all of the above, it has become necessary to propose novel methods for recovering indium from electronic waste. In this work, an indium recovery process is evaluated, which is viable both, from an economic and an environmental point of view. An indium leaching process is developed by using acetic acid as leaching agent. The LCD screens, mainly computer, were disassembled and reduced to a size <200 mesh, this through the use of a zircon pearl mill. According to the diagrams obtained from the MEDUSA program, leaching occurs at pH of 4, so it was adjusted with a sodium acetate solution. For each 5 g of solid sample, a solution of 250 ml of 0.5 M acetic acid was used, while 0.1 M sodium thiosulfate was used as a reducing agent. Tests were carried out at three different temperatures: 25 ºC, 60 ºC and 80 ºC, under the same operating conditions. At 80 ºC, the highest extraction of the species of interest was obtained after 24 h, which was 320 mg for each kg of solid sample. In this process of recovery of indium, an extraction percentage of approximately 70% was obtained. In order to explain the kinetics of the leaching process, the decreasing core kinetic model without ash formation was used. From this it was found that the stage that controls the process is the diffusion through the fluid layer, where according to the Damköhler number the process is controlled by the reaction on the solid surface.