A group of researchers from the USA has found a cost-effective and energy-efficient method to selectively recover cobalt and nickel from scraped Li-ion batteries using electrodeposition. This research has been published in the journal of Nature Communications.
Study: Selective cobalt and nickel electrodeposition for lithium-ion battery recycling through integrated electrolyte and interface control. Image Credit: Smile Fight/Shutterstock.com
Why is it Necessary to Recycle Spent Li-ion Batteries?
As the global demand and consumption of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries (LiB) are increasing day by day, end-of-life spent LiBs are contributing to environmental pollution and governmental and political pressure.
On top of that, most of the metals used in these batteries are still scarce in terms of mining. These spent multi-metallic cathodes of LiBs, such as lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) cathodes, contain lithium (5–8%), nickel (5–10%), cobalt (5–20%), and manganese (10–15%), whereas nickel-metal-hydride batteries possess a high content of nickel (36–42%) and cobalt (3–5%).
What are the Pre-Existing Processes and Challenges in the Recycling of LIBs?
The chemical separation of cobalt and nickel from NMC can be achieved through solvent extraction, precipitation, adsorption, intercalation, and dialysis. The solvent extraction and precipitation usually exhibit high selectivity performance, but require large thermal energy consumption, large chemical costs, or waste...
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