RESUMO
This work investigates the thermal release of mercury from phosphor powder of spent fluorescent lamps. The treatment conditions and the ability of various reducing agents (primarily sodium borohydride) to lower the overall heating temperature required to improve the release of Hg have been evaluated. Hg species in samples were monitored in a thermal desorption atomic absorption spectrometer system, and total mercury was analyzed in a cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometer. Sodium borohydride was the best reducing agent among the ones studied. However, citric acid presented a high capacity to weaken mercury bonds with the matrix. When the sample was crushed with sodium borohydride for 40 min in a mass ratio of 10:1 (sample:reducing agent) and submitted to thermal treatment at 300 degrees C for 2 h, the concentration of mercury in a phosphor powder sample with 103 mg kg(-1) of mercury reached 6.6 mg kg(-1).
Assuntos
Conservação dos Recursos Naturais/métodos , Descontaminação/métodos , Resíduos de Drogas/análise , Contaminação de Equipamentos/prevenção & controle , Fluorescência , Iluminação/instrumentação , Mercúrio/análise , Boroidretos , Temperatura Alta , Indicadores e Reagentes , Substâncias Luminescentes/análise , Oxirredução , Espectrofotometria AtômicaRESUMO
In this work, mercury speciation in phosphorus powder matrices and soda lime glass waste from new and spent fluorescent lamp wastes has been studied by thermo-desorption/atomic absorption spectrometry (TDAAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cold vapor-atomic absorption (CV-AAS) and atomic emission spectrometry/inductively coupled plasma (ICP/AES). TDAAS results show the presence of oxidized forms of mercury, i.e., Hg(1+) and Hg(2+), especially in wastes with high mercury concentration. Such forms are mobile, and therefore represent a potential hazard waste material. Glass TD profiles of spent fluorescent lamps suggested the presence of mercury strongly linked to the matrix, which desorbs only at high temperatures.