LCDs have replaced CRTs as the main display devices recently. To satisfy the increasing demands, billions of LCDs are manufactured annually. However, as more LCDs are produced and are used, the amount of LCD waste is increasing at an alarming rate. LCD waste can be simply disassembled into a numerous parts, most of which are commonly recycled, but the LCD panels typically are not. Waste LCD panels are generally disposed of in landfills or by physical treatments. An increasing number of countries are prohibiting such treatments, because waste LCD panels are potentially hazardous and detrimentally affect human health. The development of a new solution that involves the recycling and recovery of waste LCD panels is important. LCD panels consist of LCs, indium, glasses and other rare metals and organic materials. LCs is stable, non-degenerate and has high unit price. Indium is rare in Earth's crust. Glasses are a kind of alkaline earth boro-aluminosilicate with high purity and stable compositions. These three materials have higher recycling values than other materials in LCD panels. Therefore, this work developed a method for recovering and re-using LCs, indium and glasses from waste LCD panels. The reformulated LC mixture, after it had undergone extraction, purification and blending, was utilized to produce LCD again and is display performance reached the commercial level. The reformulated LC mixture also could be applied to fabricate the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal-based smart windows. The recovery rate of indium from waste LCD could reached to 90% by simply leaching and concentrating process. After removing LCs and indium, the glasses were transformed into a high efficiency absorbent for treatment of waste water which was contained some heavy metals such as lead (Pb) by a specific process. The maximum adsorption capacity of Pb was 50 mg/g according to the Langmuir adsorption model.

Waste LCD panel, liquid crystal, reuse