Recovery of lithium and cobalt from waste lithium ion batteries of mobile phone

Abstract

In view of the stringent environmental regulations, availability of limited natural resources and ever increasing need of alternative energy critical elements, an environmental eco-friendly leaching process is reported for the recovery of lithium and cobalt from the cathode active materials of spent lithium-ion batteries of mobile phones. The experiments were carried out to optimize the process parameters for the recovery of lithium and cobalt by varying the concentration of leachant, pulp density, reductant volume and temperature. Leaching with 2M sulfuric acid with the addition of 5% H2O2 (v/v) at a pulp density of 100g/L and 75°C resulted in the recovery of 99.1% lithium and 70.0% cobalt in 60min. H2O2 in sulfuric acid solution acts as an effective reducing agent, which enhance the percentage leaching of metals. Leaching kinetics of lithium in sulfuric acid fitted well to the chemical controlled reaction model i.e. 1−(1−X)1/3=kct. Leaching kinetics of cobalt fitted well to the model ‘ash diffusion control dense constant sizes spherical particles’ i.e. 1−3(1−X)2/3+2(1−X)=kct. Metals could subsequently be separated selectively from the leach liquor by solvent extraction process to produce their salts by crystallization process from the purified solution.