A SiCl₄-Assisted Roasting Approach for Recovering Spent LiCoO₂ Cathode

Abstract

Efficiently recycling end-of-life lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has been pursued in recent years to reduce energy consumption and secondary waste. In this paper, silicon tetrachloride (SiCl4)-assisted roasting was developed to recover LiCl, CoCl2, and Co3O4 from spent lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) batteries. At 500 °C and a SiCl4/LiCoO2 mass ratio of 3:1, 95.6% of Co was recovered as CoCl2 and 98.4% of Li was recovered as LiCl. When the mass ratio was 0.7:1, 24.6% of Co was in the form of CoCl2, and the remaining was Co3O4, accompanied by the Li leaching rate of 95.6%. LiCoO2 resynthesized from recycled Li2CO3 and Co3O4 exhibits good electrochemical performance, with a capacity of over 142.5 mAh g–1 at 1C and a capacity retention rate of 93% after 100 cycles. According to the EverBatt model analysis, the SiCl4-assisted roasting method exhibits lower energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission, as well as more considerable revenue. Since SiCl4 is a byproduct of the polysilicon production process, the SiCl4-assisted chlorination at medium temperatures not only reduces the cost, but also achieves the disposal of SiCl4 and spent LIBs in a green manner.

A Review of Recovering Lithium and Cobalt from Spent LiCoO2 Lithium‐Ion Batteries Cathode

“…In the whole process, consumption was significantly reduced and the hazardous gas was averted dramatically. Li made an attempt to use the toxic byproduct of polysilicon production SiCl 4 as chlorination agent to recover LiCoO 2 , utilizing its strong chlorination effect, which contains 84 % chlorine content [127] . Simultaneously, it was realized the harmless treatment and effective recycling of two kinds of waste resources.…”

Carbon neutrality strategies for sustainable batteries: from structure, recycling, and properties to applications

“…The chlorination roasting process converts the cathode material into water-soluble chlorides. The developed efficient fluxes include NH 4 Cl, 238 SiCl 4 , 240 and CaCl 4 . 239 Selective lithium extraction is possible employing the CaCl 4 -based chlorination roasting process, which selectively transforms metals into water-soluble LiCl and water-insoluble oxides (Ni 1/3 Co 1/3 Mn 1/3 O 1.5 ).…”

Transient and dry recycling of battery materials with negligible carbon footprint and roll-to-roll scalability

“…To quantify the environmental and economic advantages, we used the EverBatt model developed by the Argonne National Laboratory to evaluate the entire recycling flow for our transient recycling and compared it with pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods. 30,41,46 The energy consumption is composed of direct energy input and material input (Fig. 4b).…”