Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have increasingly been used since 1991 in diverse electronic products such as cameras, cellphones, laptops, and further for the electrical vehicle. The market of the cathode of LIBs is growing from $7 billion in 2018 to $58.8 billion by 2024. LIBs usually have 2-3 years of life span depending on materials. These electronic waste with high concentrations of metals and toxic organic solvents may negatively affect our environment and human health. Material recovery from the spent-LIBs system is not only necessary for environmental protection, but also important for resource conservation. Hydrometallurgy has been considered as the most efficient way to recover Li and Co from LIBs by using inorganic acids. In this work, we investigated the recovery of Co and Li using ten dilution times Organic Aqua Regia (OAR) without the separation of the cathode from Al foil which can reduce the complexity of the pretreatment process. OAR has been used as a high selectivity etchant to recovery noble metals such as gold (Au) and palladium (Pd) without leaving harmful residues. The metal leaching rate reached up to 0.035 mg-Li●ml-1●min-1and 0.29 mg-Co●ml-1●min-1depending on the metal species and other leaching conditions, which are comparable to the reported rates using other organic acids (i.e., succinic acid and malic acid). The result shows the leaching efficiency for Co and Li is over 80%, 2 wt.% H2O2under the temperature of 85oC for 60 minutes with ultrasonication (120W). Moreover, we characterized the changes in the morphology of cathode materials before/after leaching by X-ray Diffraction, Raman spectrometer, SEM-EDS, and UV-vis to further understand the leaching mechanisms. This green chemical leaching method is aimed at improving the industrial recovery processes for LIBs.

Leaching of valuable metals from spent-lithium-ion batteries using organic aqua regia

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.