Effect of Microwave Pretreatment on the Leaching and Enrichment Effect of Copper in Waste Printed Circuit Boards

[Image: see text] The use of efficient and clean methods for the recycling of waste circuit boards is an ongoing challenge. In this research, the effect of microwave pretreatment on the leaching and enrichment of copper from waste print circuit board (WPCB) was studied. The morphology and chemical structure of WPCB particles before and after microwave pretreatment were analyzed by SEM/EDS and Fourier infrared spectroscopy. Leaching experiments and copper enrichment tests were designed to investigate the effect of different microwave irradiation powers and microwave irradiation times on the copper leaching rate and copper enrichment rate in WPCB. The leaching experiment results showed that microwave pretreatment can effectively improve the leaching rate of WPCB. When the microwave irradiation power was 700 W, the irradiation time was 120 s, and the leaching time was 15 min, the copper leaching rate in WPCB was 57.01%, which was 24.34% higher than that in the untreated condition. The results of copper enrichment experiment show that microwave pretreatment can effectively improve the copper enrichment of WPCB. After microwave pretreatment, copper was effectively enriched in the 4–2 and 2–1 mm particle sizes. When the microwave irradiation time was 120 s, the copper enrichment rates in the 4–2 and 2–1 mm particle sizes were 1.74 and 1.66, which increased by 0.63 and 0.32, respectively, compared to the untreated condition. Microwave pretreatment enables the effective separation of metallic copper from non-metallic components in WPCB, increasing the exposure area of copper and promoting the monomer separation of copper, thus improving the leaching and enrichment of copper.