A Novel Giniite Route to Separate Impure Fe/Al for Recovering Li from Spent Lithium-ion Battery

Authors

• Ting Su, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Jingyi Pan, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Hongyu Chen, Northeast Normal University
• Zhihua Wang, Northeast Normal University
• Jiancong Liu, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Rui Bian, Northeast Normal University
• Suiyi Zhu, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Jiewen Yang, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Jialin Liang, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Weilu Yang, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering
• Yang Yu, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2023

Publication Source

Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances

Volume Number

12

E-ISSN

27724166

Article Number

100344

Abstract

Spent Li–ion batteries are valuable to be disassembled as metals, plastics, and Li-rich black powder. Unlike metals and plastics, Li-rich black powder contains abundant impurities of Fe/Al/P, and its recycling is challenging to date. Herein, a facile hydrothermal route was developed to recycle the black powder as giniite spheres and griceite cubes. Results showed that the black powder comprised 28.2% Fe, 3.1% Al, 4.8% Li, and 19.7% P and was dissolved by diluted azotic acid to produce an Fe/Al/Li/P-rich leachate. Fe/Al/Li removal was achieved by 99.7%, 96.3%, and 23.2% by adjusting the leachate to pH 3. By contrast, with hydrothermal treatment, 99.3% Fe and 51% Al were removed as giniite spheres with diameters of 4–8 μm, while the loss of Li was less than 1%. With the addition of glucose, the Fe/Al removal efficiencies were further increased to 99.9% and 98.8%, and the loss of Li was only 1.9%. With the hydrothermal treatment, Fe/Al reacted with phosphate to form giniite spheres, in which free H⁺ was generated and accumulated in the leachate to steadily retard Fe/Al removal. However, in the presence of glucose, it reacted with nitrate to consume the generated H⁺ and then continued Fe/Al removal, which resulted in the low concentrations of the remaining Fe/Al in the leachate. After Fe/Al removal, the rest of the Li was easily precipitated as cubic griceite. Thus, this method is a promising strategy to effectively recycle Li from spent Li batteries.

Keywords

Fe/Al removal, Giniite sphere, Hydrothermal route, Recycling, Spent lithium battery

Recommended Citation

Published in: Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances, Volume 12, November 1, 2023.