Recycling of Cobalt by Liquid Leaching from Waste 18650-Type Lithium-Ion Batteries

Liangmou Yu,Bo Shu,Shiwen Yao

doi:10.4236/aces.2015.54043

Abstract

In this work, we recover cobalt from waste 18650-type lithiumion batteries by acid leaching. The cathode material is completely dissolved, after leaching waste batteries by using 10 mol/L industrial sulfuric acid at 70℃ for 1 h. The rate of cobalt leaching is nearly 100%. Removal of sodium carbonate, iron, aluminum and other impurities from the leaching solution was well performed by adjusting the pH to 2-3 with stirring vigorously. Finally, under the conditions of 55℃-60℃ of 240 A/m2 current density, electrodeposition current efficiency was 90.01%, the quality of the electrical output achieved cobalt 1A standard electrolytic cobalt, cobalt until greater than 90% yield. The process is easy and suitable for large-scale lithiumion batteries used in the recovery of valuable metals.

Highlights

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries as a new generation of green, non-pollution chemical energy storage device are widely used in portable electronic apparatus and vehicles
The recycling of major components from spent LIBs is considered to be a beneficial way to prevent environmental pollution and as alternative resource of cobalt [1]. 18650-type power batteries are widely used in small portable devices, increasing along with the rise of electric vehicles in Tesla [2]
Since cobalt is a relatively expensive material compared to the other battery constituents and can be widely used in new LiBs electrode materials, its recovery is one of the primary ob

Summary

Introduction

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries as a new generation of green, non-pollution chemical energy storage device are widely used in portable electronic apparatus and vehicles. Waste LIBs contain heavy metals, organic chemicals and plastics, which will bring environmental pollution. The spent lithium ion batteries contain 5 - 15 wt.% cobalt and 2 - 7 wt.% lithium as important constituents, which are an active cathodic material. The waste 18650 type lithium ion batteries contain precious metal elements cobalt with a certain toxicity as important constituents, which are an active cathodic material. (2015) Recycling of Cobalt by Liquid Leaching from Waste 18650Type Lithium-Ion Batteries. Separation and recovery methods are chemical precipitation, salting out, ion exchange, extraction, electrochemical method, respectively cobalt or lithium-containing compound [9]. Β-Co(OH) with a hexagonal structure by using chemical precipitation or electrochemical precipitation This method does not directly recovered cobalt.

Experimental

Effect of pH on the Leaching Process

Electrodeposition

Conclusion