Dual recovery and utilization strategy for metallic and non‐metallic components in waste mobile phone circuit boards

Abstract

Abstract Waste mobile phone circuit boards (WMPCBs), a critical component of waste mobile phones, contain substantial metallic components (MCs) and non‐metallic components (NMCs), serving as a potential secondary resource. MCs and NMCs were efficiently separated via ultrasound‐enhanced gravity separation. The MCs were subsequently subjected to ultrasonic‐assisted leaching using glutathione (GSH), glycine (GG), and glycyl‐L‐glutamine (GLG), followed by solvent displacement crystallization to synthesize copper‐chelated small peptides (CCPs). X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), x‐ray diffraction (XRD), and energy‐dispersive x‐ray spectroscopy (EDS) confirmed that the elemental compositions of three CCPs aligned with theoretical predictions. Agronomic evaluations demonstrated that CCPs significantly enhanced seed germination rates (reaching 100% for rice and sorghum) and slightly increased seedling height (over 1 cm for rice and maize), outperforming the control and conventional copper fertilizer groups by 33.3% in germination efficiency. Simultaneously, KH550‐modified NMCs were combined with nano‐SiO 2 , nano‐ZnO, and graphite in varying proportions to fabricate multiscale filler/epoxy resin (EP) composites, and their mechanical properties were systematically investigated. Results demonstrated that controlling the content of these fillers significantly enhanced the composites' impact strength and fracture toughness, broadening their potential for applications requiring tailored mechanical performance.