Study on the separation and extraction of rare-earth elements from the phosphor recovered from end of life fluorescent lamps

Abstract

In this study, recovered phosphor from end of life three-wavelength fluorescent lamp was selected for reuse rare earth elements in the phosphor. The effect of a type of acid, concentration, and time was investigated as solubility of rare earth elements. In addition, precipitate heat-treated was investigated as possibility of reusable phosphor. The results showed that the amount of the rare earth elements was different values depending on the type of acid, and it was investigated with concentration of acid and reaction time. After precipitation reaction, the precipitate was sintered in electric furnace in order to reuse rare earth elements as phosphor. It was confirmed that yttrium, europium, oxygen, and carbon through X-ray diffraction and inductively coupled plasma analysis. Following the results, it can assume that rare earth oxide reuse the phosphor as three-wavelength fluorescent lamp.