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Recovery and regeneration of LiFePO4 from spent lithium-ion batteries via a novel pretreatment process

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Abstract

The recycling of spent LiFePO4 batteries has received extensive attention due to its environmental impact and economic benefit. In the pretreatment process of spent LiFePO4 batteries, the separation of active materials and current collectors determines the difficulty of the recovery process and product quality. In this work, a facile and efficient pretreatment process is first proposed. After only freezing the electrode pieces and immersing them in boiling water, LiFePO4 materials were peeled from the Al foil. Then, after roasting under an inert atmosphere and sieving, all the cathode and anode active materials were easily and efficiently separated from the Al and Cu foils. The active materials were subjected to acid leaching, and the leaching solution was further used to prepare FePO4 and Li2CO3. Finally, the battery-grade FePO4 and Li2CO3 were used to re-synthesize LiFePO4/C via the carbon thermal reduction method. The discharge capacities of re-synthesized LiFePO4/C cathode were 144.2, 139.0, 133.2, 125.5, and 110.5 mA·h·g−1 at rates of 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 C, which satisfies the requirement for middle-end LiFePO4 batteries. The whole process is environmental and has great potential for industrial-scale recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2020B090919003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51834008, 51874040, and U1802253), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. FRF-TP-18-020A3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Cheng Yang, Jia-liang Zhang, Qian-kun Jing, Yu-bo Liu, Yong-qiang Chen & Cheng-yan Wang

  2. School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Cheng Yang, Jia-liang Zhang, Qian-kun Jing, Yu-bo Liu, Yong-qiang Chen & Cheng-yan Wang

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Recycling and Extraction of Metals, Beijing, 100083, China

    Jia-liang Zhang, Yong-qiang Chen & Cheng-yan Wang

  4. School of Metallurgy Engineering, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, 341000, China

    Cheng-yan Wang

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  1. Cheng Yang
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Correspondence to Jia-liang Zhang or Cheng-yan Wang.

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Yang, C., Zhang, Jl., Jing, Qk. et al. Recovery and regeneration of LiFePO4 from spent lithium-ion batteries via a novel pretreatment process. Int J Miner Metall Mater 28, 1478–1487 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-020-2137-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-020-2137-6

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