Dolotko Oleksandr, Gehrke Niclas, Malliaridou Triantafillia, Sieweck Raphael, Herrmann Laura, Hunzinger Bettina, Knapp Michael, Ehrenberg Helmut
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Applied Materials-Energy Storage Systems (IAM-ESS), Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, D-76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Helmholtz-Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage (HIU), P.O. Box 3640, D-76021, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Commun Chem. 2023 Mar 28;6(1):49. doi: 10.1038/s42004-023-00844-2.
The increasing lithium-ion battery production calls for profitable and ecologically benign technologies for their recycling. Unfortunately, all used recycling technologies are always associated with large energy consumption and utilization of corrosive reagents, which creates a risk to the environment. Herein we report a highly efficient mechanochemically induced acid-free process for recycling Li from cathode materials of different chemistries such as LiCoO, LiMnO, Li(CoNiMn)O, and LiFePO. The introduced technology uses Al as a reducing agent in the mechanochemical reaction. Two different processes have been developed to regenerate lithium and transform it into pure LiCO. The mechanisms of mechanochemical transformation, aqueous leaching, and lithium purification were investigated. The presented technology achieves a recovery rate for Li of up to 70% without applying any corrosive leachates or utilizing high temperatures. The key innovation is that the regeneration of lithium was successfully performed for all relevant cathode chemistries, including their mixture.
锂离子电池产量的不断增加，要求有盈利且生态友好的回收技术。不幸的是，所有现有的回收技术总是伴随着大量的能源消耗以及腐蚀性试剂的使用，这对环境构成了风险。在此，我们报告了一种高效的机械化学诱导无酸工艺，用于从不同化学组成的阴极材料（如LiCoO、LiMnO、Li(CoNiMn)O和LiFePO）中回收锂。所引入的技术在机械化学反应中使用铝作为还原剂。已开发出两种不同的工艺来再生锂并将其转化为纯LiCO。研究了机械化学转化、水浸出和锂纯化的机制。所展示的技术在不使用任何腐蚀性浸出液或高温的情况下，锂的回收率高达70%。关键的创新点在于，对于所有相关的阴极化学组成，包括它们的混合物，都成功实现了锂的再生。
