Regeneration of well-performed anode material for sodium ion battery from waste lithium cobalt oxide via a facile sulfuration process

Abstract

More attentions have been paid to the increasing expired spent lithium ion batteries due to the contained precious metals, especially Li and Co. However, the recycling systems at present have their limitations, such as unsatisfied recovery rate for pyrometallurgical process. In this study, a facile and efficient recovery method is proposed to simultaneously achieve the selective separation of metals and material regeneration. Based on the thermodynamic equilibrium diagrams and practical experiments, the product of recovery process, as expected, consists of soluble lithium salt and insoluble cobalt sulfide. Almost all of Co is recycled and transformed into regenerated material, while 89.76% Li is recycled separately. Moreover, the regenerated material exhibits excellent sodium storage performance (500 mAh/g at the current density of 2 A/g in 500 cycles), which is on a par with the similar reported materials synthesized by pure reagents. This study may provide a different perspective with potential values for the future large-scale recycling of spent lithium ion batteries.