AbstractInter alia due to the high demand for lithium‐ion batteries, the required critical heavy metals have become a scarce resource. Consequently, effective recycling processes that enable the recovery of such materials are of high interest. A silica adsorbent functionalized with amino‐polycarboxylate derivate ligands (HSU331) was applied in order to selectively adsorb nickel(II) and cobalt(II). Subsequently, suitable parameters for a pH‐swing desorption were investigated. Maximum desorption efficiencies for Co(II) were achieved at pH = 2.7 (72 %) and for Ni(II) at pH = −0.5 (94 %). These results were used for the design of a pH‐shift desorption process in order to selectively recover Co(II) and regenerate the adsorbent after simultaneous adsorption of Co(II) and Ni(II).
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