Primary study on the recovery of lead from waste flexible X/Gamma ray shielding materials using pyrolysis

摘要

Lead is typically utilized for X/gamma ray shielding and hazard dosage diminishing. The improper recycling of lead can cause serious hazards to the environment and human beings. In contrast, the recycling of lead from gamma-ray shielding materials with high metal content can be used as a secondary metal source, which contributes to the regulated accumulation and environment protection. Therefore, primary study on lead recovery from waste flexible Vinyl-Methyl-Silicone based gamma-ray shielding materials is conducted. The effects of pyrolysis temperature and heating rate on the lead recovery rates were analyzed. With the optimized pyrolysis conditions, 57.40 wt lead was obtained at a pyrolysis temperature of 300 °C and duration of 15 min. The solid product is mainly a mixture of lead and lead oxides.