Recovery of electrodic powder from spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs)

Abstract

This study was focused on recycling process newly proposed to recover electrodic powder enriched in cobalt (Co) and lithium (Li) from spent lithium ion battery. In addition, this new process was designed to prevent explosion of batteries during thermal treatment under inert atmosphere. Spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs) were heated over the range of 300°C to 600°C for 2 hours and each component was completely separated inside reactor after experiment. Electrodic powder was successfully recovered from bulk components containing several pieces of metals through sieving operation. The electrodic powder obtained was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AA) and furthermore image of the powder was taken by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It was finally found that cobalt and lithium were mainly recovered to about 49 wt.% and 4 wt.% in electrodic powder, respectively.