電気パルス法によるガラス基板からの白金族金属含有金属層分離の検討

The platter of hard disk drives contains valuable metals such as the Ruthenium and Platinum. However, these metals were not recycled from the disk for a long time because the low-cost separation and concentration technologies have not been established. In this study, we applied the electrical pulsed discharge method to the separation of the metal layer from the glass substrate in the platter. The relationship between the input voltage and the exfoliating rate by the pulsed discharge was investigated. The discharge plasma was generated between the electrodes placed at the center and the outer boundary of the platter. The metal layer along the path of discharge plasma was separated from the substrate. The exfoliating rate was increased by increasing the charging voltage. The exfoliating mechanism was discussed through by the surface observation and the evaluation of plasma temperature caused by the plasma using an electronic microscope and a spectroscope, respectively.