Digestion and Extraction of Electronics Materials for the Spectroscopic Determination of RoHS relevant Elements following IEC Methods 62321

Increasing use of consumer products including electronic components and polymers requires attention to protect human health and environment. EU directive 2011/65/EU is the basis of globally evolving regulations on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). It is closely linked to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE).

The RoHS directive regulates not only the maximum amounts of organic substances like brominated flame retardants and phthalates which are used as plasticizers but also the hazardous elemental contaminations Hg, Cd, Pb and Cr (IV). The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has established methods to test for the relevant substances in the standard compendium IEC 62321.

Multiple international electronic manufacturers mention the IEC test methods as their standard analysis technique to comply with the RoHS directive.

Beside the European directive other regulations have been established worldwide (e.g. SJ/T11363-2006 in China) which are designed based on the European guideline.

This report covers sample preparation for the analysis of Hg, Cd and Pb (microwave assisted acid digestion) and hexavalent Cr (IV) (microwave assisted solvent extraction) of electronic and polymer samples using Multiwave 5000 with Rotor 20SVT50.