Utilizing waste carbon residue from spent lithium-ion batteries as an adsorbent for CO2 capture: A recycling perspective

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Recycling and reusing the carbon-residues (i.e., graphite), as well as recovering valuable metals by leaching from spent lithium-ion batteries, is environmentally and economically significant. In particular, since a large amount of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) will be generated along with the rapid growth of electric vehicles (EVs), research on recycling carbon-residues from LIB anodes is urgently needed. Herein, the battery powder (BP) was obtained from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) through physical-pyrolysis and sieving. Chemical composition analysis confirmed that the battery used in this work was composed of NCM cathode with high-nickel content and graphite anode material. The average particle size of the obtained BP was 87 μm. In order to obtain the residue having high concentration of carbon, the metal extraction was applied using an HCl solution. As a result, metals (Li, Ni, Co, Mn, Al, Cu, and Fe) in the final remnant were found to be less than 2%, and carbon was found to have a purity of 97% or more. The obtained BP was tested as both the adsorbent and support for indoor CO2 capture. Various activation treatments were examined to enhance the textural properties of BP. BP-K (K2CO2 impregnated BP) adsorbents were prepared, and their CO2 adsorption performances were evaluated with CO2 adsorption isotherms, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and 0.1m3 chamber (CO2 IR analyzer) at low CO2 level (1000–2000 ppm). Through XRD and FT-IR analyses, the adsorption mechanism between K2CO3 and CO2 under moisture-containing indoor air conditions was confirmed to depend on chemisorption in the following reaction pathway: R1–R3(K2CO3(s) + H2O (g) + CO2 (g) ⇋ 2KHCO3(s) (R1), K2CO3(s) + 1·.5H2O(g) ⇋ K2CO3·1·.5H2O(s) (R2), K2CO3·1·.5H2O(s) + CO2(g) ⇋ 2KHCO3(s) + 0·.5H2O(g)(R3)). The adsorption working capacities of the recycled BP-K adsorbents were remained relatively constant during four consecutive cycles.