Global NEST Journal, Vol 11, No 2, pp 241-247, 2009 Copyright© 2009 Global NEST Printed in Greece. All rights reserved PRODUCTION OF COPPER POWDER FROM PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS BY ELECTRODEPOSITION I. MASAVETAS 1 1 Laboratory of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry A. MOUTSATSOU 1,* 2 General Chemistry Laboratory E. NIKOLAOU 1 School of Chemical Engineering, S. SPANOU 2 National Technical University of Athens A. ZOIKIS–KARATHANASIS 2 9, Iroon Polytechneinou str., Polytechnioupolis E.A. PAVLATOU 2 157 73, Zografou, Athens, Greece N. SPYRELLIS 2† Received: 30/09/08 *to whom all correspondence should be addressed: Accepted: 29/01/09 e-mail: angst@central.ntua.gr ABSTRACT During the last years, the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are gathering attention, as a very special section of waste. In fact, they have been proven to be source for the recovery of metals. In the present study printed circuit boards (PCBs) were cut and treated thermally at 500 o C for 1 h in both air and nitrogen atmosphere. The obtained material was dissolved in three different acid media HNO 3aq , HCl aq and H 2 SO 4aq , in order to extract copper. The achieved Cu recovery percentages were 97.5, 65 and 76.5% respectively. Electrodeposition technique was applied in order to recover copper in powder form. More than 98% of copper was recovered achieved by application of high current density resulting to dendritic structure of copper. The applied process was characterised by a high current efficiency and led to the production of copper powder of 80 µm mean diameter appropriate for powder metallurgy applications. KEYWORDS: Printed circuit boards, leaching, electrowinning, Cu recovery, Cu powder. 1. INTRODUCTION Due to the rapid technological progress, the replacement of electronic equipment is very often necessary, leading to huge amounts that end up as waste. In addition, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) contains metals of high commercial value and others that are supposed to be hazardous for the environment. Consequently, WEEE could be considered as a significant source for recovery of non-ferrous metals. Among these waste, computers appear to be distinctive, as far as further exploitation is concerned. According to studies carried out, computers seem to be the only WEEE that could allow a system to be financially beneficial (PriceWaterHouseCoopers, 2002). The most “useful” parts of the computers are the printed circuit boards (PCBs) that contain many metals of interest. A typical weight distribution indicates that PCBs represent approximately 13% of the weight of a desktop personal computer unit (Menegaki et al., 2006). Statistics reveal that the amount of WEEE produced per year in Europe is approximately 6.000.000 tn, with a growing rate of 3-5% per year (Kirkitsos et al., 2002). In Greece, for the year 2007, the household WEEE produced is estimated to be 100.000 tn (Polychronopoulou et al., 2006). Moreover, by taking into consideration the so-called “historic waste” (waste that their owners, for various reasons, are unwilling to discard), one comes up with a sum that would have fatal consequences if these waste reach the current land-filling system. The methods that can be used in order to recover metals from computers are basically the physical/mechanical and the chemical separation. In Greece, during the last years the first steps have been attempted, concerning mainly the physical/mechanical separation. As far as concerning chemical separation, electrowinning, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy are