Abstract
Hydrometallurgical recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries is among the most promising recovery approaches. The current hydrometallurgical method for battery recycling faces challenges such as complex separation and precipitation processes, and environmental concerns from the use of caustic inorganic acid and hazardous hydrogen peroxide. Our proposed modified method, namely polyol-metallurgy, uses citric acid in ethylene glycol as dual-function green solution to overcome these obstacles. This bifunctional solution leaches valuable metal ions from cathode materials (e.g., LiCoO2), and then acts as chelating agents to selectivxely precipitate cobalt through an esterification reaction, without the need for additional precipitation agents. The leaching efficiency of cobalt and lithium reaches 99.55 % and 97.65 %, respectively, and more than 96 % of cobalt could be directly self-precipitated and recovered. The unique characteristics of the dual-function solution also avoids impurities from Al foils and PVDF/carbon black films, enabling the simple separation process. Therefore, the process can be completed in one-pot system with efficient leaching, separation and coprecipitation, making it more efficient and feasible for operation than existing alternatives.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 103025 |
| Journal | Energy Storage Materials |
| Volume | 63 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2023 |
Funding
This research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT Battelle, LLC, for the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725 , was sponsored by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Office (Program Managers: Jake Herb and Tina Chen) . This work was done in collaboration with the ReCell Center at Argonne National Laboratory. Characterization was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences , which is a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility . This research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT Battelle, LLC, for the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725, was sponsored by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Office (Program Managers: Jake Herb and Tina Chen). This work was done in collaboration with the ReCell Center at Argonne National Laboratory. Characterization was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05–00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- Cathodes
- Lithium-ion batteries recycling
- Polyol-metallurgy
