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Hydrometallurgical recycling of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries by reductive leaching with stannous chloride

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Abstract

The reductant is a critical factor in the hydrometallurgical recycling of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). There is limited information regarding the use of SnCl2 as a reductant with organic acid (maleic acid) for recovering valuable metals from spent Li-CoO2 material. In this study, the leaching efficiencies of Li and Co with 1 mol·L−1 of maleic acid and 0.3 mol·L−1 of SnCl2 were found to be 98.67% and 97.5%, respectively, at 60°C and a reaction time of 40 min. We investigated the kinetics and thermodynamics of the leaching process in this study to better understand the mechanism of the leaching process. Based on a comparison with H2O2 with respect to leaching efficiency, the optimal leaching parameters, and the activation energy, we determined that it is feasible to replace H2O2 with SnCl2 as a leaching reductant in the leaching process. In addition, when SnCl2 is used in the acid-leaching process, Sn residue in the leachate may have a positive effect on the re-synthesis of nickel-rich cathode materials. Therefore, the results of this study provide a potential direction for the selection of reductants in the hydrometallurgical recovery of valuable metals from spent LIBs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFB0100301) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21875022 and U1664255).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute Technology, Beijing, 100081, China

    Liu-ye Sun, Bo-rui Liu, Tong Wu, Guan-ge Wang, Qing Huang, Yue-feng Su & Feng Wu

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  1. Liu-ye Sun
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  2. Bo-rui Liu
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  3. Tong Wu
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  5. Qing Huang
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Correspondence to Qing Huang.

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Sun, Ly., Liu, Br., Wu, T. et al. Hydrometallurgical recycling of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries by reductive leaching with stannous chloride. Int J Miner Metall Mater 28, 991–1000 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-020-2115-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-020-2115-z

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