Leaching and purification of indium from waste liquid crystal display panel after hydrothermal pretreatment: Optimum conditions determination and kinetic analysis

Abstract Indium is one of the components with great recycling value in waste LCDs. Degradation of organic materials and the remain of indium in the solid phase can be simultaneously achieved by hydrothermal pretreatment via parameter regulation. Indium was transferred from the solid phase to the liquid phase by using sulfuric acid after hydrothermal pretreatment. Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid diluted by sulfonated kerosene and hydrochloric acid were used as extractant and stripping agent respectively to purify and concentrate indium from acidic leaching solution. The results indicated that the leaching yield of indium reached 100% under the optimal condition of reaction time of 40 min, reaction temperature of 70–80 °C, acid concentration of 0.5 M and solid-liquid (S/L) ratio of 1:2 g/mL. Given conditions of extraction time of 3 min at the organic phase to aqueous phase (O/A) ratio of 1:10 by 20% D2EHPA and stripping time of 10 min at the (O/A) ratio of 10:1 by 4 M HCl, the recovery efficiency of indium reached 97.25%. In addition, acid leaching process did not change the surface topography and molecular structure of glass substrate and had no negative effect on subsequent recycling of glass. The kinetic equation of leaching yield and reaction time at the temperature of 80 °C is 1 − (1 − y)1/3 = 0.0215 t. The reaction activation energy of metal indium leaching process is 50.64 kJ/mol.