<p>Smartphones, one of the most common consumer
electronic devices, are an essential part of daily activities in modern
society. Smartphones provide faster communication, easier access to information
and many other important services. However, with a compressed product life
cycle and growing consumer demand, a significant number of smartphones reach
End-of-Life (EoL) annually. At the same time, due to many special physical
properties, rare earth, critical and other important metals are essential for
the manufacturing of smartphones. Hence, from various economic, resources
availability and environmental perspectives, it is crucial to understand how
metal content of different smartphones generations change over time. To this
end, a high production smartphone series, produced between 2010 and 2015 were
considered in the scope of this study. The devices were disassembled, sorted
into different components and size reduced. Printed circuit boards assembly,
back cameras and NFC antenna/wireless charging chips were then digested using a
novel microwave assisted acid digestion method. Inductively Coupled
Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy was used to detect and quantify 60
elements. Obtained results indicate that up to 70% of different smartphones
components by weight are important recyclable metals. The highest concentration
elements, Cu, Ni, Sn, Zn and Fe, accounted for 93.3% while REEs and PGMs
collectively accounted for 0.53% of the total recoverable elements by weight.
In 2019, the total addressable market value of metals reclamation from only
three smartphone components at their end of life is estimated at 298.69 million
USD in USA. Gold and Platinum were determined to be the most environmentally
critical elements and efforts should made to reduce their use. Finally, and
most importantly, smartphones manufacturers should design their products with
an extended lifetime due to the high concentration of critical elements used to
make them.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12739478 |
| Date | 31 July 2020 |
| Creators | Omar N Tantawi (9187403) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/EVOLUTION_OF_SMARTPHONES_METAL_CONTENT_WITH_ITS_FAST-IMPROVING_FUNCTIONALITIES/12739478 |
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