Kim BR  Jang DH  Kim DW

Vol. 27,  No. 3, pp. 240-246, Sep.  2021
10.7464/ksct.2021.27.3.240

Waste etching solution Iron samples Copper recovery Cementation

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The waste etching solution for chip on film (COF) contained about 3.5% copper, and it was recovered through cementation using iron samples. The effect of cementation with plate, chip, and powder iron samples was investigated. The molar ratio (m/r) of iron to copper was use as a variable in order to increase the recovery rate of copper. As the molar ratio increased, the copper content in the solution rapidly decreased at the beginning of the cementation reaction. Before and after the reaction, the copper content of the solution was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) using copper concentration according to time. After cementation at room temperature for 1 hour, the recovery rate of copper had increased the most in the iron powder sample, having the largest specific surface area of the samples, followed by the chip and plate samples. The recovered copper powder was characterized for its crystalline phase, morphology, and elemental composition by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. Copper and unreacted iron were present together in the iron powder samples. The optimum condition for recovering copper was obtained using iron chips with a molar ratio of iron to copper of 4 giving a recovery rate of about 98.4%.