Selective Recovery of Battery-Grade LiCO from Spent NCM Cathode Materials Using a One-Step Method of CO Carbonation Recovery Without Acids or Bases.

The recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries by traditional acid leaching is limited by serious pollution, complicated technology, and the low purity of LiCO. To address the problems of the traditional acid leaching process and increasing demand for decarbonization, a technique for the selective carbonation leaching of Li and the recovery of battery-grade LiCO by a simple concentration precipitation process without acids or bases was developed. The coupling of CO and reducing agents could effectively promote the precipitation of MCO (M=Ni/Co/Mn) and the selective leaching of Li by decreasing the reducing capability needed for transition metals and decreasing the pH of the solution. The optimal selective leaching process of Li was obtained under 1 MPa CO with 20 g/L NaSO at an L/S ratio of 30 mL/g for 1.5 h. FT-IR, XRD, ICP-MS and other methods were used to reveal the multiphase interfacial reaction mechanism of the carbonation reduction of layered cathode materials, which indicated that the reducing agent NaSO could promote lattice distortion of the cathode materials and effective separation of Li. In summary, a green and economical method for the selective recovery of battery-grade LiCO using a one-step method of CO carbonation recovery in a near-neutral environment was proposed.