Reduce / Reuse / Recycle

October 28, 2005

 

Sharp Succeeds in Recycling Indium from LCD Panels

Keywords: Manufacturing industry Reduce / Reuse / Recycle 

Sharp Corp., a major Japanese electronics manufacturer, has succeeded in recycling indium from indium tin oxide (ITO) in transparent conducting films used for liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, the Osaka-based company announced on May 24, 2005.

As the demand for LCD products, including LCD TVs, has expanded rapidly in recent years, consumption of indium has substantially increased. Indium is also widely used in transparent electrodes of flat-panel displays, such as plasma and organic electroluminescent (EL) displays, and its consumption is expected to increase.

However, indium is an extremely rare metal because it is produced as a by-product of zinc ore processing. The company predicts that a growing number of used LCD panels will be disposed of as a result of increasing replacement demand for LCDs in the future, and decided to attempt the recovery of indium from the transparent electrodes in the LCD panels.

Under the method developed by Sharp, LCD panels are crushed into glass cullet and dissolved with an acid solution, and then indium is recovered by a new separation technology that utilizes the properties of indium. The process to recover indium is rather simple, uses commonly-used chemicals, and does not require large amounts of energy such as for high temperature or pressure, but it recovers highly pure indium. Sharp plans to conduct verification tests using larger equipment, and then to launch full-scale indium-recycling operations.

http://sharp-world.com/index.html

Posted: 2005/10/28 01:33:21 PM
Japanese version

 

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