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Using highly concentrated chloride solutions to leach valuable metals from cathode-active materials in spent lithium-ion batteries

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Abstract

This study focused on the extraction of valuable metals from the cathode-active materials in spent lithium-ion batteries using a high-concentration chloride solution. The effects of the concentrations of ammonium chloride (NH4Cl), hydrochloric acid (HCl), and reductants such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and urea (CO(NH2)2) on metal extraction and chlorine production were studied experimentally. The leaching mechanism was analyzed, and a leaching model was established. It was found that the addition of solid NH4Cl to an HCl solution significantly improved the metal extraction capability of the latter and reduced the formation of chlorine gas by 96.0% compared to that only using HCl. The activation energies for leaching Li, Ni, Co, and Mn were determined to be 30.4, 38.5, 30.6, and 38.2 kJ·mol−1, respectively. This study demonstrates an environmentally friendly method for recycling metal resources from cathode-active materials and furthers understanding of how NH4Cl inhibits chlorine production when leaching with mixed solutions of HCl and NH4Cl.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2018YFB0605702), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51774260, 21606241 and 51804289), the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.QYZDJ-SSW-JSC021), and CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Ai-Fei Yi, Zhao-Wu Zhu, Ya-Hui Liu, Jian Zhang, Hui Su & Tao Qi

  2. Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Ai-Fei Yi, Zhao-Wu Zhu, Ya-Hui Liu, Jian Zhang & Tao Qi

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101407, China

    Hui Su

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  1. Ai-Fei Yi
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Correspondence to Zhao-Wu Zhu.

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Yi, AF., Zhu, ZW., Liu, YH. et al. Using highly concentrated chloride solutions to leach valuable metals from cathode-active materials in spent lithium-ion batteries. Rare Met. 40, 1971–1978 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01503-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01503-4

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