RECYCLING ELECTRONIC CERAMIC RESIDUALS IN TRADITIONAL CERAMIC HOST COMPOSITIONS

Residuals from the manufacture of ceramic actuators were admired to tr aditional ceramic host compositions at a 10% level by weight to accomp lish recycling. Host compositions were clay brick, triaxial whiteware, and alumina porcelain products. The PMN residual exhibited lead leach ing using the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) in exc ess of 200 mg/l indicating that landfill disposal was inappropriate. A ll of the ceramic products containing residuals were fired at usual pr ocessing temperatures of 1150-1480 degrees C. Bench scale physical pro perty tests indicated that the ceramic products would meet the normall y accepted criteria qualifying them for general use. The lead TCLP val ues for the whiteware and brick were less than five mg/l. Since the le ad TCLP was lowest for the whiteware composition (<4 mg/l Pb), it was also subjected to a 14 day water leaching test. The leachate exhibited no detectable lead or barium and exhibited the same relative aquatic toxicity as a nutrient solution used in the toxicity test. These resul ts indicate that recycling by use of highly vitrified host composition s can be a method for society to produce useful products and that thes e products could exhibit acceptable product safety for many potential applications.