Ricerc@Sapienza

Technological development improved human life style, but the fast progress of electronic applications makes devices quickly obsolete, generating waste difficult to treat (Zhou and Qiu, 2010), the so-called Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The generation of WEEE substantially grows up in the last years, resulting a total WEEE production of about 20-50 million tonnes every year (Bachér and Kaartinen, 2017). Some estimations indicate that within Europe the generation of WEEE is about 12 million tons, that is around 23 kg per person (Bachér et al., 2015).

In this study, a methodological approach based on micro X-ray fluorescence
(micro-XRF) was developed in order to characterize end-of-life (EOL) printed circuit boards
(PCB) from smartphones. An in-depth recognition of chemical elements on the PCB allows
to set up an optimal processing strategy for recycling purposes. Moreover, a good
knowledge of PCB composition can help to correctly manage such a waste maximizing
the recovery of base, rare and precious metals. The possibility to carry out analyses both

In this work, hyperspectral imaging in the short wave infrared range (SWIR: 1000-2500 nm) coupled with chemometric techniques was evaluated as an analytical tool to detect and classify different asbestos minerals, such as amosite ((Fe2+)2(Fe2+,Mg)5Si8O22(OH)2)), crocidolite (Na2(Mg,Fe)6Si8O22(OH)2) and chrysotile (Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4), contained in cement matrices. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used for data exploration and Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogies (SIMCA) for sample classification.