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Impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Analysis of institutional authors

Giner-Sanz, Juan JoséCorresponding AuthorPerez-Herranz, ValentinAuthor

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November 20, 2025
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Article
Hybrid Gold

Study of the effect of the pretreatment and the concentrations of iron (II) and chloride, on the electrochemical leaching of waste printed circuit boards using ANOVA analysis

Publicated to: JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY. 152 234-244 - 2025-12-25 152(), DOI: 10.1016/j.jiec.2025.04.054

Authors:

Grima-Carmena, Laura; Giner-Sanz, Juan Jose; Pocovi-Martinez, Salvador; Bosch-Mossi, Francisco; Perez-Herranz, Valentin
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Affiliations

Inst Tecnol Metalmecan Mueble Madera Embalaje & Af, AIDIMME, Parque Tecnol,Avda Leonardo Da Vinci 38, Paterna 46980, Valencia, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Valencia, Dept Ingn Quim & Nucl, IEC Grp, Cami Vera S-N, Valencia 46022, Spain - Author

Abstract

The current rates of production and consumption of electronic devices have made the generation of electronic waste a global concern. Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) are the core component of electrical waste. A proper management of WPCBs is crucial from both, an environmental point of view (they contain toxic materials) and an economic point of view since they contain valuable materials such as precious metals (PMs). The heterogeneity in WPCBs composition hampers the effective recovery of the valuable metals contained in WPCBs, making it essential to adopt a combined approach such as the inclusion of a chemical pretreatment to recover the materials that they contain. This work studies the effect of the chemical pretreatment, Fe2+ and Cl concentrations on the recovery yield and the kinetics of the leaching of Cu, Au and Ag, during the electrochemical treatment of real WPCBs. This study aims to assess the viability of using waste spent pickling acids (SPAs) from surface treatment industries to recover valuable materials from WPCBs by electrochemical leaching. Two full 22 factorial designs were considered: the first design evaluated the effect of Cl and Fe2+ concentrations, while the second design studied the effect of the chemical pretreatment and Cl concentration. A novel in-house leaching system was used. Operating at room temperature with a mildly acidic media (0.05 M H2SO4), the system achieved leaching yields up to 99 %, 75 % and 99 % for Cu, Au, and Ag, respectively. These recoveries were reached in less than 150 min for Cu and Ag and less than 60 min for Au. Based on the results, a sequential and environmentally friendly recovery process was proposed to recover separately base and PMs from WPCBs.
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Keywords

AcidBase and precious metalsCircular economyClean water and sanitationCopper recoveryE -wasteE-wasteGoldMetalsPcbsPrecipitationSilver-chlorideSolubilitySpent pickling acidsStatistical analysisWpcbsZinc

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2025, it was in position 35/176, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Engineering, Chemical.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-06:

  • WoS: 1
  • Scopus: 2
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-06:

  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 12 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

    It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

    • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
    Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 6 - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a probability of 41% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
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    Leadership analysis of institutional authors

    There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Grima-Carmena, Laura) and Last Author (Pérez Herranz, Valentín).

    the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Giner Sanz, Juan José.

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    Project objectives

    La aportación persigue los siguientes objetivos: analizar el efecto del pretatamiento químico en la recuperación electroquímica de metales valiosos de placas de circuito impreso usadas; evaluar la influencia de las concentraciones de hierro (II) y cloruro en el rendimiento y cinética del lixiviado de cobre, oro y plata; determinar la viabilidad del uso de ácidos de decapado gastados para la recuperación de materiales valiosos; caracterizar el desempeño de un sistema de lixiviado electroquímico desarrollado in situ operando a temperatura ambiente y medio ácido; y proponer un proceso secuencial y ambientalmente sostenible para la recuperación separada de metales base y preciosos a partir de residuos electrónicos.
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    Most relevant results

    El estudio analiza el efecto del pretatamiento químico y las concentraciones de Fe2+ y Cl en la lixiviación electroquímica de residuos de placas de circuito impreso (WPCBs). Los resultados más relevantes son: (1) se alcanzaron rendimientos de lixiviación de hasta 99 % para Cu, 75 % para Au y 99 % para Ag; (2) los tiempos de recuperación fueron inferiores a 150 minutos para Cu y Ag, y menores a 60 minutos para Au; (3) la combinación de pretatamiento químico y concentración de Cl mostró un impacto significativo en la eficiencia de recuperación; (4) se validó la viabilidad del uso de ácidos gastados de decapado (SPAs) en un sistema novedoso operando a temperatura ambiente y medio ácido suave (0,05 M H2SO4); (5) se propuso un proceso secuencial y ambientalmente sostenible para la recuperación diferenciada de metales base y preciosos.
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    Awards linked to the item

    This work was supported by the IVACE (Institut Valenciade Competitivitat Empresarial. Project LIXMIX: IMDEEA/2022/54) , and FEDER funds i.e. European Union. Authors are grateful to GAIKER for the WPCBs pretreatment and to Recuintec for the WPCBs. J.J.G.S. is very grateful to the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, to the Next Generation EU, and to the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, for their support by a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporacion fellowship (IJC2020-044087-I) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. The authors express their gratitude to Nuria Fernandez Ortiz for the support provided in characterizing the samples. The Article Processing Charges (APCs) were covered by the transformative agreements between CRUE-Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and Elsevier.
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