Recycling of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition waste of GaN based power device and LED industry by acidic leaching: Process optimization and kinetics study

• Recycling of GaN a MOCVD waste of LED industry is investigated.
• Addresses waste of GaN based power device industry and environmental directives.
• A leaching process has been optimized and leaching kinetics is investigated.
• A techno-economical feasible, environment friendly and occupational safe process.

Recovery of metal values from GaN, a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) waste of GaN based power device and LED industry is investigated by acidic leaching. Leaching kinetics of gallium rich MOCVD waste is studied and the process is optimized. The gallium rich waste MOCVD dust is characterized by XRD and ICP-AES analysis followed by aqua regia digestion. Different mineral acids are used to find out the best lixiviant for selective leaching of the gallium and indium. Concentrated HCl is relatively better lixiviant having reasonably faster kinetic and better leaching efficiency. Various leaching process parameters like effect of acidity, pulp density, temperature and concentration of catalyst on the leaching efficiency of gallium and indium are investigated. Reasonably, 4 M HCl, a pulp density of 50 g/L, 100 °C and stirring rate of 400 rpm are the effective optimum condition for quantitative leaching of gallium and indium.

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