Recovering a Rare Metal from LCDs
June 5, 2015 | ACSEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Life without bright screens on our smart phones and TVs is hard to imagine. But in 20 years, one of the essential components of the liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs, that make many of our gadgets possible could disappear. To address the potential shortage of this component — the element indium — scientists report in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering a new way to recover the valuable metal so it could be recycled.
Many consumer electronics from laptops to tablets contain thin films of indium tin-oxide that act as transparent conductive coatings in the displays. Currently, the rare-earth metal is not being adequately recycled. And in China alone, experts estimate that consumers will throw out 100 million TVs, computers and laptops between 2014 and 2020. This rapid turnover explains in part why the limited global reserves of indium are in danger of running out. So Jinhui Li and colleagues set out to devise a new method to get the metal back from discarded products.
The researchers performed 18 experiments to find the optimal conditions for coaxing indium from LCDs. The most effective technique involved crushing and grinding LCD glass into particles less than 75 micrometers, or 0.003 inches, in size and bathing them in a sulfuric acid solution at 122 degrees Fahrenheit. These and other key parameters, the scientists say, could contribute to a closed-loop process of indium recovery that could allow the display industry to get indium from discarded electronics rather than using dwindling reserves.
Suggested Items
Altair SimSolid Transforms Simulation for Electronics Industry
03/29/2024 | AltairAltair, a global leader in computational intelligence, announced the upcoming release of Altair SimSolid for electronics, bringing game-changing fast, easy, and precise multi-physics scenario exploration for electronics, from chips, PCBs, and ICs to full system design.
IMI Taps New Opportunities to Sustain Grit in China
03/28/2024 | IMIIntegrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. (IMI), Joey S. Bantatua, IMI China’s head of operations and general manager was recently interviewed by Asia Electronics Industry (AEI) magazine where he talked about the prospects of the country both as a market and a production hub.
Kimball Electronics Publishes Annual Sustainability Disclosures with its 2023 Guiding Principles Report
03/28/2024 | BUSINESS WIREKimball Electronics, Inc. published its annual sustainability disclosures in its 2023 Guiding Principles Report, themed “How We Are Winning Together The Kimball Way.”
iNEMI Webinar: Humidity Robustness and Insulation Coordination for e-Mobility
03/27/2024 | iNEMIThis webinar is a follow-up to the recent Seminar on Humidity Robustness and Insulation Coordination for e-Mobility, organized by iNEMI and ZESTRON Europe and supported by the ECPE.
Electronics Industry Sentiment Rises in March
03/27/2024 | IPCIPC releases March 2024 Global Sentiment of the Electronics Supply Chain Report