Non-metallic components (NMC) in waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) are made of the thermosetting epoxy resin and glass fiber, which has been a research concern in the waste recycling area. The recycling of thermosetting epoxy resin is a serious challenge due to their permanent cross-linked structure. An efficient approach to chemical recycling of epoxy resin for resource reutilization was developed in this research. ZnCl₂/CH₃COOH aqueous solution was selected as catalysts system to decompose epoxy resin under a mild reaction condition. The influence of reaction parameters such as reaction temperature, time, liquid-solid ratio and ZnCl₂ amount on the decomposition efficiency of epoxy resin and reaction mechanism were investigated. The physical and chemical properties of NMC, reaction solvent and decomposed products were analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Results showed that up to 81.85% of epoxy resin could be dissolved by using a temperature of 190 °C during 8 h with a mixture of acetic acid (15 wt%): ZnCl₂ (5 g) 20 mL/g. Incompletely coordinated zinc ions enables the cleavage of CN, CBr and CO bonds in the thermosetting brominated epoxy resin, which was mainly converted to phenol, 2-Bromophenol and 2, 4-Dibromophenol with high resource value. And the functional groups of ethyl acetate and acetic acid maintained chemical structure before and after reaction. This research provided a practical approach to the dissolution and reutilization of NMC in WPCBs.

废印刷电路板（WPCB）中的非金属组件（NMC）由热固性环氧树脂和玻璃纤维制成，这已成为废物回收领域的研究重点。由于其永久性的交联结构，热固性环氧树脂的回收是一个严峻的挑战。在这项研究中，开发了一种有效的化学循环利用环氧树脂进行资源再利用的方法。选择ZnCl ₂ / CH ₃ COOH水溶液作为催化剂体系，在温和的反应条件下分解环氧树脂。反应温度，时间，液固比和ZnCl ₂等反应参数的影响研究了环氧树脂用量对环氧树脂分解效率及反应机理的影响。使用扫描电子显微镜 （SEM），傅里叶变换红外光谱（FT-IR）和气相色谱-质谱（GC-MS）分析了NMC，反应溶剂和分解产物的物理和化学性质。结果显示，在190°C的温度下，与乙酸（15 wt％）：ZnCl ₂（5 g）20 mL / g的混合物在8小时内最多可溶解81.85％的环氧树脂。不完全配位的锌离子可裂解C N，C Br和C热固性溴化环氧树脂中的O键主要转化为资源价值高的苯酚，2-溴苯酚和2,4-二溴苯酚。并且乙酸乙酯和乙酸的官能团在反应前后保持化学结构。这项研究为NMC在WPCB中的溶解和再利用提供了一种实用的方法。