Selective recovery of metals in spent batteries by electrochemical precipitation to cathode material for sodium-ion batteries

Abstract

The recycling of key components in waste lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is an important route to make up for the shortage of battery materials. Metal separation and purification is an important step. It is of great significance to propose an efficient and green separation technology. In this paper, an electrochemical precipitation method was applied to metal separation from spent LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 cathode material. The Li and metal elements were effective separated and the precipitates were then used as precursor to synthesize high-performance R–O3-NaNFM cathode material for sodium-ion batteries. The R–O3-NaNFM exhibits excellent electrochemical cycling stability. The capacity retains 71.3 mAh g−1 after a long-term cycling of 200 times at 1 C. This method offers a referable strategy of the recycling for the waste cathode material in spent LIBs.

Keywords

• Electrochemical separation
• Metal precipitation
• Recycling of spent batteries
• Cathode materials
• Metallic composites
• Energy storage and conversion