Ionic liquids can be applied to recover tantalum capacitors from scrap printed circuit boards. Dissolution experiments with epoxy covered through‐hole tantalum capacitors in Lewis acidic mixtures of dialkylimidazolium halides and aluminum trichloride show that all parts, except the tantalum anode, are dissolved in the ionic liquid. This comprises MnO2 from the capacitor's electrolyte as well as tin and silver from the metallic contacts. The latter ones can be directly recovered from the solution by electrodeposition. The tantalum anode is mechanically separated and suitable for further metallurgical processing.
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Brisinski et al. (2013) studied this question.
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