Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) applications in the chemical analysis of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)

• Published in: TrAC, Trends in analytical chemistry (Regular ed.) Trends in analytical chemistry (Regular ed.), 2018-11, Vol.108, p.65-73
• Main Authors: Costa, Vinícius Câmara, Castro, Jeyne Pricylla, Andrade, Daniel Fernandes, Victor Babos, Diego, Garcia, José Augusto, Sperança, Marco Aurelio, Catelani, Tiago Augusto, Pereira-Filho, Edenir Rodrigues
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemometric tools; Direct solid sample analysis; Polymer identification; Printed circuit board; Waste electrical and electronic equipment; WEEE recycling and sorting
• ISSN: 0165-9936; 1879-3142
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2018.08.003

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is the most rapidly growing waste stream in the world, and in developing countries, the majority of the residues are disposed of in the open. Polymers and printed circuit boards (PCB) compose the major portion of WEEE. Motivated by this important problem, this review describes the contributions of the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique to the chemical inspection of polymers and PCB from WEEE. Several aspects of this technique have been reported, such as the application of chemometric tools, data mining, data treatment and manipulation. We also present an emission-line library for the identification of the polymers in WEEE. Additionally, we highlight the work of many LIBS researchers who have developed, adapted, and improved the WEEE analysis methods. [Display omitted] •Electronic waste chemical inspection using LIBS technique.•Chemometrics applications combining LIBS data and WEEE.•Emission lines library for polymers identification in WEEE.•Data mining and processing with chemometric strategies.•Calibration using direct solid samples analysis after data normalization.