He Kai, Zhang Zhi-Yuan, Alai Lagu, Zhang Fu-Shen
Department of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Department of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2019 Aug 5;375:43-51. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.03.120. Epub 2019 Mar 29.
Recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has aroused extensive attentions with the expanding demand of electric vehicles. Two considerable challenges of LIBs recycling were separating electrode materials from metallic foils and reclaiming hazardous electrolyte. In the current study, an environmentally benign process was developed to recovery electrode materials and hazardous electrolyte. The main merits were that no strong acid or alkali was applied in the process, and the electrode materials were reclaimed in flaky form. A special complex aqueous peeling agent, namely exfoliating and extracting solution (AEES) was manufactured and applied in the process. The results indicated that cathode material could be exfoliated from Al foil by weakening the mechanical interlocking force and Coulomb force between cathode materials and foils. Ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) could be extracted from electrodes and separators and recovered via distillation. LiPF could be precipitated from EC and PC and recovered via filtration. The conditions could be precisely controlled by optimizing the concentration of AEES. The recovery efficiencies of electrolyte, Al foil, Cu foil and electrode materials were 95.6%, 99.0%, 100% and near 100%, respectively. The process efficiently avoided infiltration of impurities into the electrode materials and is environmentally friendly for industrial application.
随着电动汽车需求的不断增长，废旧锂离子电池（LIBs）的回收利用引起了广泛关注。锂离子电池回收面临的两大挑战是将电极材料与金属箔分离以及回收危险的电解质。在当前的研究中，开发了一种环境友好型工艺来回收电极材料和危险电解质。其主要优点是该工艺不使用强酸或强碱，并且电极材料以片状形式回收。制备了一种特殊的复合水性剥离剂，即剥离萃取溶液（AEES）并应用于该工艺中。结果表明，通过削弱阴极材料与箔片之间的机械互锁力和库仑力，可以将阴极材料从铝箔上剥离下来。碳酸亚乙酯（EC）和碳酸亚丙酯（PC）可以从电极和隔膜中萃取出来，并通过蒸馏回收。LiPF可以从EC和PC中沉淀出来，并通过过滤回收。通过优化AEES的浓度可以精确控制条件。电解质、铝箔、铜箔和电极材料的回收效率分别为95.6%、99.0%、100%和近100%。该工艺有效避免了杂质渗入电极材料，对工业应用来说环境友好。
