Sustainable safe and environmentally friendly process to recovery valuable materials from hazardous waste InP

Jiapeng Zhang; Tong Li; Jian Pang; Lingxin Kong; Zhicheng Yang; Liangliang Chen; Baoqiang Xu; Bin Yang

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2022.11.001

Sustainable safe and environmentally friendly process to recovery valuable materials from hazardous waste InP

Waste Manag. 2023 Jan 1:155:153-161. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.11.001. Epub 2022 Nov 12.

Authors

Jiapeng Zhang¹, Tong Li², Jian Pang¹, Lingxin Kong³, Zhicheng Yang¹, Liangliang Chen¹, Baoqiang Xu⁴, Bin Yang⁵

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Research Center of Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Key Laboratory for Nonferrous Vacuum Metallurgy of Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China.
² Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China.
³ National Engineering Research Center of Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Key Laboratory for Nonferrous Vacuum Metallurgy of Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China. Electronic address: konglx@kust.edu.cn.
⁴ National Engineering Research Center of Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Key Laboratory for Nonferrous Vacuum Metallurgy of Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China.
⁵ National Engineering Research Center of Vacuum Metallurgy, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Faculty of Metallurgical and Energy Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; Key Laboratory for Nonferrous Vacuum Metallurgy of Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China; State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China. Electronic address: kgyb2005@126.com.

PMID: 36379165
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.11.001

Abstract

With the rapid expansion of the market scale for indium phosphide (InP) semiconductors in high-tech industries such as optoelectronics and solar energy, the generation of hazardous waste InP has also increased dramatically, and the task of recycling waste InP is urgent. However, InP as a representative phosphide semiconductor is prone to produce highly toxic substances such as yellow phosphorus and PH₃ in the recycling process, which discourages most companies from using it. In this study, a safe and efficient method of "vacuum decomposition-directional condensation (VD-DC)" is proposed to recover valuable materials from waste InP. In this method, briquetting pretreatment is used to improve thermal conductivity. At a decomposition temperature of 1123 K, system pressure of 30 Pa, and holding time of 3.5 h, indium with a purity of 99.43 wt% is obtained, and the direct yield reaches 98.54%. Non-toxic and stable red phosphorus with a purity of 98.14 wt% is recovered by converting the condensed yellow phosphorus at 573 K. Vacuum technology significantly reduces the decomposition temperature of InP and avoids the emission of waste water and waste gas, thus operating in an environmentally friendly manner.

Keywords: Environmentally friendly; Hazardous waste InP; Recycling; Red phosphorus; VD-DC.