Innovative Materials Development using Electronic Waste Remaining after Metals Leaching

该项目的目的是通过开发聚合物共混物和聚合物纳米复合材料等创新多相材料来开发回收电子废物的方法。电子废物，特别是印刷电路板，是回收最具挑战性的案例之一，因为这些材料由聚合物、金属和玻璃纤维的混合物组成。该项目的重点是回收这些电子废物材料的聚合物部分。聚合物成分通常基于聚酰亚胺、聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯、聚萘二甲酸乙二醇酯或玻璃纤维增​​强热固性材料。我们将与位于卡尔加里的加拿大电子回收公司 EXCIR 合作，减少送往垃圾填埋场的塑料废物。 我们计划使用物理和化学工艺来回收电子材料。物理过程通常包括分离金属和非金属部分，并研磨非金属部分，以制备填料，用于制造各种应用中的新材料，包括热固性树脂、热塑性复合材料、混凝土和粘弹性材料。 PCB 的非金属部分将使用超临界流体反应器分解为低聚物或较小的化学品，这些低聚物或较小的化学品可重新用作其他复合材料系统的原料或燃料。在另一种策略中，多氯联苯或解聚反应产生的固体残留物将被研磨成小颗粒，并用作各种聚合物基质（包括聚乙烯、聚丙烯、聚苯乙烯等）的填料。我们将在实验室规模上优化工艺条件，然后在项目后期阶段扩大到更大的中试规模。电子显微镜、热分析、X射线方法和粒度分析以及机械和电气测试等表征设备将用于优化。使用这些方法进行电子废物回收的工作很少，因此，加拿大循环塑料经济的目标将取得重大进展。

The aim of this project is to develop methods to recycle e-waste via development of innovative multiphase materials such as polymer blends and polymer nanocomposites. Electronic waste (e-waste), particularly printed circuits boards, is one of the most challenging cases for recycling as these materials consist of a mixture of polymers, metals, and glass fiber. The focus of this project is to recycle the polymeric part of these e-waste materials. The polymeric component is usually based on polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene naphthalate, or glass-fiber-reinforced thermosets. We will work with EXCIR, a Canadian electronics recycling company based in Calgary, to reduce the plastics waste sent to landfill. We plan to use both physical and chemical processes to recycle electronic materials. The physical processes normally consist of separating the metallic and non-metallic parts and grinding the non-metallic fraction to prepare fillers for fabricating new materials in various applications including thermosetting resins, thermoplastic composites, concrete, and viscoelastic materials.Non-metallic fraction of the PCBs will be decomposed using supercritical fluid reactors to oligomers or smaller chemicals that can be re-used as feedstock in other composite systems, or for fuels. In another strategy, either PCBs or the solid residues from the de-polymerization reactions will be ground to small particles and will be used as fillers in various polymer matrices including polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, etc. We will optimize process conditions on the laboratory scale, before scaling up to a larger pilot scale in later stages of the project. Characterization equipment such as electron microscopy, thermal analysis, X-ray methods and particle size analysis and mechanical and electrical tests will be used for the optimization. There is little work on e-waste recycling using these methods and thus, there will be significant progress toward Canada's goals for a circular plastics economy.