Leaching Kinetics of Y and Eu from Waste Phosphors under Microwave Irradiation

Abstract

Waste fluorescent powder contains a large amount of rare earth elements, which have a high value for recovery and utilization. In order to achieve the rapid and efficient leaching of rare earth elements in these waste phosphors, microwave-assisted leaching of rare earth elements Y and Eu from the waste phosphor with hydrochloric acid was studied. The maximum leaching rates of Y (99.84%) and Eu (89.82%) were obtained at 600 W microwave power, 60 min microwave radiation time at 60 °C. The leaching kinetics showed that the microwave leaching process of Y and Eu conforms to the chemical reaction control model, and the apparent activation energy is 25.30 kJ/mol and 24.78 kJ/mol. Compared with the conventional heating method, the microwave leaching process can obviously reduce the reaction activation energy, shorten the reaction time, and achieve the rapid and efficient leaching of rare earth elements in the waste phosphors.