A Novel Approach to Recycle Precious Metals from Spent Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

With rapidly increasing demand of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) triggered by the widespread proliferation of mobile devices and electric vehicles, a comprehensive and clean recycling strategy is greatly desired to alleviate the pressure of waste treatment and raw material supply. In this study, a novel method is developed for the recovery of semi-precious metals (Li, Co and Ni) from spent LIBs based on low temperature solution reactions, which is different from conventional acid leaching or high temperature smelting recycling methods. This novel recycling method can be applied to most of the prevailing commercial cathode materials, including LiCoO2(LCO), LiNixMnyCozO2 (NMC), and LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 (NCA), with high recovery rates of 93%~99%. In situ synchrotron XRD is conducted to reveal the reaction mechanism and optimize the reaction conditions. A scaled-up recycling test towards industrial applications is also proposed based on the solution reactions. The experimental results suggest this novel method can be easily adopted for industry-level LIB recycling processes in an efficient and environmentally friendly way. A life cycle analysis has also been conducted to confirm the economic and energy/emission feasibility of this approach. Therefore, this approach shows great promise as a next-generation scenario for the recycling of high-value metals from spent commercial LIBs in the near future. Figure 1