Author(s)

Osamu Terakado^1*, Shunsuke Kuzuhara², Hironori Takagi³, Masahiro Hirasawa³

¹Department of Material and Environmental Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hakodate College, Hakodate, Japan.
²Department of Materials and Environmental Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Sendai College, Natori, Japan.
³Department of Chemical Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.

Thermal degradation of a FR-4 type printed circuit board, PCB, containing brominated flame retardant has been studied both in inert and oxidative atmosphere for the emission control of harmful brominated compounds. The presence of oxygen in atmosphere resulted in the reduction of the yield of hydrogen bromide, one of the major brominated compounds in thermal treatment, and in the enhancement of the formation of bromine and hypobromous acid. The intentional addition of zinc oxide to the PCB powder sample gave rise to the fixation of Br as zinc bromide. It also resulted in the promotion of the release of brominated compounds in comparison to the case of pure PCB. Thus, the addition of the oxide can be a benefit with respect to the bromine fixation and the kinetics of thermal treatment of PCB as well as metal recovery.

Printed Circuit Board, Brominated Flame Retardants, Hydrogen Bromide, Bromine, Emission Control

Terakado, O. , Kuzuhara, S. , Takagi, H. and Hirasawa, M. (2018) Thermal Decomposition of Printed Circuit Board in the Presence of Zinc Oxide under Inert and Oxidative Atmosphere: Emission Behavior of Inorganic Brominated Compounds. Engineering, 10, 606-615. doi: 10.4236/eng.2018.109044.