Separating zinc from copper and zinc mixed particles using vacuum sublimation

This paper reports a method for separating zinc from copper and zinc mixed particles by vacuum sublimation. The factors influencing zinc sublimation have been studied, such as particle size and vacuum degree. Also, the factors affecting the efficiency of zinc separation from the mixed particles have been investigated and optimized, including layer height, heating time, vacuum degree and so on. The efficiency of zinc separation from the mixed particles achieves 96.19 wt% when the layer height is 1.1 cm, the vacuum degree is 0.01–0.05 Pa, the heating temperature is 1123 K, and the heating time is 105 min. With these optimized parameters, the copper purity increases from 95.07 to 99.80 wt%. The results provide foundations for separating metals with high pressures from the mixed metallic particles of crushed electronic waste.