High-efficiency leaching of valuable metals from waste Li-ion batteries using deep eutectic solvents

Bing Lu; Rong Du; Gang Wang; Yuwei Wang; Shuangshi Dong; Dandan Zhou; Shiyong Wang; Changping Li

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2022.113286

High-efficiency leaching of valuable metals from waste Li-ion batteries using deep eutectic solvents

Environ Res. 2022 Sep;212(Pt B):113286. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113286. Epub 2022 Apr 20.

Authors

Bing Lu¹, Rong Du², Gang Wang³, Yuwei Wang⁴, Shuangshi Dong⁵, Dandan Zhou⁶, Shiyong Wang⁴, Changping Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523106, Guangdong, China; Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China.
² Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, Spallation Neutron Source Science Center, Dongguan, China.
³ School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523106, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: wghy1979@163.com.
⁴ School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523106, Guangdong, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China. Electronic address: dongshuangshi@gmail.com.
⁶ Engineering Lab for Water Pollution Control and Resources Recovery of Jilin Province, School of Environment, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130117, China.
⁷ School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan, 523106, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: licpbit@hotmail.com.

PMID: 35452672
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113286

Abstract

With the penetration of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) into electric vehicles, the recycling of waste LIBs is inevitable from the perspective of health, economy and environmental protection. Herein is reported a novel green method for extracting valuable metals from the cathode of LIBs, in which the Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) is used as leachate to dissolve electrode material waste. Mixing choline chloride (ChCl) and malonic acid is helpful to effectively improve the reduction ability of DES, resulting in superior leaching efficiency. At the lower temperature (100 °C), the leaching efficiency of cobalt and lithium reached up to 98.61% and 98.78%, respectively. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy demonstrated that DESs could act as both leachate and reducing agent, which could destroy the covalent bonds of metal oxides to form a cobalt (II)-chlorine complex. This method is straightforward to operate and does not involve the additional reducing agents, which is held promise to bring economic and sustainable development prospects in the field of lithium battery development.

Keywords: Cathode recycling; Deep eutectic solvents; Hydrogen bond; Leaching efficiency; Spent lithium-ion batteries.