Dissolution of cathode active material of spent Li-ion batteries using tartaric acid and ascorbic acid mixture to recover Co

Abstract

Environmentally benign hydrometallurgical dissolution process is investigated for the recovery of cobalt from the cathode active materials of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). A mixture of tartaric acid and ascorbic acid is used to dissolve the LiCoO2 collected from spent LIBs. The reductive-complexing mechanism led to >95% dissolution with 0.4M tartaric acid and 0.02M ascorbic acid in about 5h at 80°C. The dissolved Co was separated as cobalt oxalate from the mixture.