Perspectives for the recovery of rare earths from end-of-life fluorescent lamps

This vision paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the three main options for the recycling of rare-earth ele- ments from end-of-life fluorescent lamps： （1） direct re-use of the lamp phosphor mixture; （2） separation of the lamp phosphor mixture into the different phosphor components; （3） recovery of the rare-earth content. An overview is given of commercial activities in Europe in the domain of recycling of materials from end-of-life fluorescent lamps and the recovery of rare earths from these lamps. The collection of end-of-life fluorescent lamps is currently driven by a legal framework that prohibited the release of mercury to the environment. The contaminations of the lamp phosphor powders by mercury and by small glass particles of crushed fluorescent lamps are limiting factors in the recycling process. Research should be directed to an advanced clean-up of the reclaimed lamp phosphor fraction, and in particular to the removal of mercury and glass fragments. The recovery of rare earths from the lamp phosphors could be facilitated by taking advantage of the differences in resistance of the different lamp phosphors by chemical attack by inorganic ac- ids and bases.

Preparation and Luminescent Properties of BAM Blue Phosphor for PDP and CCFL

The Ba x-0.05MgAl 10O 16+x∶Eu 2+ 0.05 (0.88≤x ≤1.02) phosphors with different Ba 2+ content and the Ba 0.85MgAl 10O 16.94∶Eu 2+ 0.09 phosphors with different fluxes (BaF 2, MgF 2, AlF 3, BaCl 2, MgCl 2, AlCl 3, H 3BO 3) were prepared by high temperature solid-state reaction method and their luminescence characteristics were studied under 254 nm excitation and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) excitation. With the increase of the Ba 2+ content, there is an increase in the emission intensity, and when x=0.94, it reaches a maximum. Then, as the Ba 2+ content increases, the emission intensity slowly falls. The fluorides have better flux-effects than chlorides and H 3BO 3. The possible mechanism in the process of particle growth was discussed when fluorides were used as fluxes. The effect of the activator concentration on this system was also investigated. The quenching concentration is 0.13 mol in per mole host.

Study on Effect of Flux on CeMgAl_(11)O_(19)∶Tb ^(3+) Phosphor

High calcination temperature is an important factor in the preparation process of CeMgAl 11O 19∶Tb 3+. To decrease the temperature, different fluxes (H 3BO 3, MgF 2 and AlF 3) were tested in order to compare their influence on the luminescence property and particle size distribution of CeMgAl 11O 19∶Tb 3+. The result shows that when the content of MgF 2 is 0.1 mol/mol, the intensity of luminescence can attain a maximum. Furthermore, MgF 2 can improve the particle size quality of the phosphor. So MgF 2 can take the place of the conventional flux H 3BO 3 to prepare high quality CeMgAl 11O 19∶Tb 3+ phosphor. In addition, the relation between phosphor property and content of AlF 3 was also studied. The crystal structure of the phosphor was analyzed by XRD method. The phase composition analysis shows that the reason of decrease of the brightness of CeMgAl 11O 19∶Tb 3+ phosphor is the emergence of TbAlO 3 and α-Al 2O 3 during the preparation process.

Experimental Study of the Temperature Distribution of Solar Collector Pavement

Black asphalt road have excellent properties to collect the solar radiation and good use of asphalt absorb solar energy is a new energy technology. Asphalt is a sticky plastic material,its modulus and strength will change with temperature and the actual bearing capacity of pavement structure will change as well. A new method was used to evaluate the temperature change of asphalt pavement. By simulate solar radiation on asphalt sample to study the change of the temperature field. The temperature distribution of the asphalt concrete under the same light radiation and circulating water was also studied. The results indicate that this method can be a good simulation of solar collectors on the surface temperature field.