Sharp Uses LCD Panels to Recycle Indium

JCNN News Summaries - Japan Corporate News Network, May 24, 2005 by Aki Tsukioka

Tokyo, May 24, 2005 - (JCNN) - Sharp (TSE: 6753) announced on May 24 that it has developed a technique to recycle indium from indium tin oxide (ITO) in transparent conductive film that is used in LCD panels.

An LCD panel is smashed into glass cullet, which is dissolved through acid dissolution. The company employs its unique indium separation technique to extract indium from the solution.

Sharp says that the technique is quite simple since it uses commercially available chemicals and does not require much energy, and yet it can recover highly-pure indium.

Though a rare metal, indium is expected to be used increasingly in transparent electrodes of plasma displays and organic electroluminescent (EL) displays. Sharp will test the technique using a large system for commercial application.