Leaching of Co, Mn and Ni Using H2O2 in Sulfuric Acid Medium from Mobile Phone LIBs

Abstract

From the economic point of view, spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are a precious resource that contains metals such as Co, Mn and Ni. On the other hand, environmental considerations and repetitious exploitation of natural resources, the so-called primary resource, have drawn significant attention to recycling resources. Regarding the special properties of Co, Mn and Ni, the leaching method was used to recover these metals from LIBs. For this purpose, sulfuric acid due to appropriate efficiency in the presence of H2O2 as a reducing agnet was chosen. To obtain optimum conditions of Co, Mn and Ni leaching, effective parameters on leaching steps such as sulfuric acid concentration, pulp density and H2O2 vol% were investigated. The results of ICP analysis showed that leaching of Co, Mn and Ni in the presence of 1 M sulfuric acid and 15% H2O2 (v/v) at a pulp density of 50 g/L had high efficiency, and more than 99 wt% of metals was simultaneously leached. In the absence of H2O2, leaching percent of Co, Mn and Ni was not significant and it was attributed to various oxides present in LIBs that include different valances.