Study on resource recycling of copper from spent PCB electroless copper plating bath
[Introduction]The spent electroless copper plating bath is classified as hazardous waste for it contains high concentration of heavy metal ions,bringing great pressure in environmental protection.[Method]The copper in spent electroless copper plating bath was reclaimed by decomplexing and precipitation.The effects of different accelerators,dosage of optimal accelerator,initial pH,and reaction time on the recovery of copper was studied.The recycling process was further optimized by orthogonal test.[Result]The optimal process conditions were determined as follows:accelerant CAT-210 g/L,initial pH 14.0,and reaction time 48 h.The total copper concentration in the effluent was reduced from 3680 mg/L to 1.00 mg/L after treatment under the optimized conditions,and the recovery of copper was up to 99.97%.[Conclusion]The copper in spent electroless copper plating bath can be reclaimed efficiently by decomplexing and precipitation,which is favorable for the increase of recourse utilization rate and the decrease of production cost.