A Fast Metals Recovery Method for the Synthesis of Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide Material from Cathode Waste

Abstract

An approach for a fast recycling process for Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide (NCA) cathode scrap material without the presence of a reducing agent was proposed. The combination of metal leaching using strong acids (HCl, H2SO4, HNO3) and mixed metal hydroxide co-precipitation followed by heat treatment was investigated to resynthesize NCA. The most efficient leaching with a high solid loading rate (100 g/L) was obtained using HCl, resulting in Ni, Co, and Al leaching efficiencies of 99.8%, 95.6%, and 99.5%, respectively. The recycled NCA (RNCA) was successfully synthesized and in good agreement with JCPDS Card #87-1562. The highly crystalline RNCA presents the highest specific discharge capacity of a full cell (RNCA vs. Graphite) of 124.2 mAh/g with capacity retention of 96% after 40 cycles. This result is comparable with commercial NCA. Overall, this approach is faster than that in the previous study, resulting in more efficient and facile treatment of the recycling process for NCA waste and providing 35 times faster processing.

Comparative Study of Various Kinetic Models on Leaching of NCA Cathode Material

“…The result shows that the rapid reaction during the leaching process occurred at the beginning (0-15 min), then the reaction became slow, which is indicated from the curve that tends to be constant. The reactivity of HCl towards metals is very high, as reported in the previous study [11]. The metal oxides are converted from trivalent to divalent states of Ni and Co during reaction on the leaching process [11].…”

“…The reactivity of HCl towards metals is very high, as reported in the previous study [11]. The metal oxides are converted from trivalent to divalent states of Ni and Co during reaction on the leaching process [11].…”

“…Hydrometallurgical is one of recycling method via leaching step using acids or base to leach out the valuable metal contained in material [5][6][7][8] which provide more advantages such as simple, low energy consumption, and high purity of product [9][10]. From our previous study, we focused on the investigation of re-synthesis NCA material via hydrometallurgical with various strong acids (HCl, HNO 3 , H 2 SO 4 ) in the leaching system [11]. The result showed that the re-synthesis of NCA material from cathode waste has been succeeded and showed that the HCl leaching system is the most efficient process to recover the valuable metals in cathode waste.…”

“…The result showed that the re-synthesis of NCA material from cathode waste has been succeeded and showed that the HCl leaching system is the most efficient process to recover the valuable metals in cathode waste. The recycled-NCA material had a comparable performance with commercial NCA, and it is promising to be adapted for large-scale production [11]. However, there are no reports about the study of leaching kinetics of ternary metals (nickel, cobalt, aluminum) using HCl from NCA waste, which is important for scaling up the production of recycled NCA.…”

“…Leaching behavior of Ni, Co, Al at optimum conditionThe reaction occurred during the leaching process between HCl and NCA scrap is explained in Eq. 2[11].…”