In
this work, we developed a green and efficient process for the
recovery of rare earths from waste cathode ray tube phosphors. The
mixture of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide was identified
as the most suitable leaching agent due to the synergistic effect.
The effects of various parameters on leaching process were explored,
and the optimal conditions with stirring speed 600 rpm, temperature
313 K, 1 M of H2O2, 4 M of HCl, and leaching
time of 90 min were determined. Furthermore, a possible reaction mechanism
was proposed, and the kinetics for the leaching process was investigated
in detail. The leaching process was found to follow a shirking-core
model, with the chemical reaction as the rate-controlling step. The
apparent activation energy of the reaction was calculated as 52.3
kJ/mol, and the reaction orders for H2O2 and
HCl were established as 0.82 and 2.13, respectively. The kinetic equation
was established. Moreover, the optimal leaching conditions were applied
to the waste phosphors, and the oxalate precipitation process was
employed, achieving the recovery rate of rare earths >99.5%. After
calcining, a well crystallized (Y0.95Eu0.05)2O3 product with a purity of 99% was obtained with
an average diameter of 5 μm.