Recycling primary lithium batteries using a coordination chemistry approach: recovery of lithium and manganese residues in the form of industrially important materials.

In this study, we have investigated the potential use of post-consumer primary lithium metal batteries (LMBs) commonly used in portable electronic devices to recover lithium and manganese in the form of industrially important materials. A direct reaction of lithium-containing electronic waste with a naturally sourced ester, methyl salicylate, combined with a wide range of aliphatic alcohols has been used as a general method for recovering lithium in the form of lithium aryloxides of different nuclearities [Li(OAr)(HOMe)] (1), [Li(OAr)(HOAr)] (2), [Li(OAr)(HOEt)] (3), [Li(OAr)(HO)] (4), [Li(OAr)(EGME)] (5), [Li(OAr)] (6-8) for ArOH = methyl salicylate (1, 2, 4, 6), ethyl salicylate (3, 7), 2-methoxyethyl salicylate (5, 8), and EGME = 2-methoxyethanol. The hydrolysis of 7 was then used to synthesize lithium salicylate [Li(Sal)(HO)] (10), which is an important antioxidant in the production of oils and grease.

Heterometallic 3d-4f Alkoxide Precursors for the Synthesis of Binary Oxide Nanomaterials.

In this study, a new method for the synthesis of heterometallic 3d-4f alkoxides by the direct reaction of metallic lanthanides (La, Pr, Nd, Gd) with MCl (M = Mn, Ni, Co) in 2-methoxyethanol was developed. The method was applied to the synthesis of the heterometallic oxo-alkoxide clusters [LnMn(μ-O)(μ-OR)(HOR)Cl] (Ln = La (), Nd (), Gd (); = 0, 2, 4); [PrM(μ-O)(μ-OR)(HOR)Cl] (M = Co (), Ni (); = 2, 4); and [LnMn(μ-OH)(μ-OR)(μ-OR)(μ-Cl)(HOR)Cl] (Ln = La () and Pr ()). Mechanistic investigation led to the isolation of the homo- and heterometallic intermediates [Pr(μ-OR)(μ-Cl)(HOR)Cl] (), [Co(μ-OR)(HOR)Cl] (), [Ni(μ-OR)(HOEt)Cl] (), [Mn(μ-OR)(HOR)(HOEt)Cl] (), and [Nd(HOR)Cl][CoCl] ().

Use of heterometallic alkali metal-magnesium aryloxides in ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters.

In this work, alkali metal-magnesium aryloxides [MgLi(MesalO)] (1), [MgNa(MesalO)(THF)] for = 2 or 4 (2), and [MgK(MesalO)(THF)] (3) derived from the reaction of MgBu and BuLi, metallic Na or K with methyl salicylate (MesalOH) were used as molecular platforms for the synthesis of new heterometallic compounds [MgLi(EtsalO)] (4), [MgK(EtsalO)] (5), [MgNaAl(MesalO)(OH)(MesalOH)(THF)(HO)] (6), and [MgNa(MesalO)(SalO)(THF)] (7) (EtsalOH = ethyl salicylate and SalOH = salicylic acid) by the reaction with EtOH, exposure to atmospheric moisture or addition of stoichiometric quantities of water. Compounds 4 and 5 were synthesized by transesterification of 1 and 3. Cluster 6 was formed haphazardly by exposing a THF solution of 2 derived using MgBu stabilized with 1 wt% AlEt to atmospheric moisture.