Water Electrolysis Anode Based on 430 Stainless Steel Coated with Cobalt Recycled from Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

In this paper, a new environmentally-friendly anode for hydrogen production was developed based on 430 stainless steel with an electrodeposited cobalt layer. The novelty of this work is the cobalt source once the electrodeposition bath was obtained from acid dissolution of a spent Li-ion battery cathode. The oxygen evolution reaction on electrodeposited cobalt in 1 M KOH is compatible with the E. Kobussen mechanism. The water discharge is related with reaction determinant step in low overpotential. The cobalt electrodeposition (3 Ccm−2) promotes a significant improvement of 430 stainless steel anodic properties for oxygen evolution reaction. When the overpotential reaches 370 mV, the density current for 430 stainless steel with electrodeposit cobalt is 19 mA·cm−2 against 0.80 mA·cm−2 for 430 stainless steel without cobalt. Thus, the anode construction described in this paper is an excellent option for Li-ion battery recycling.

Obtaining Mn-Co Alloys in AISI 430 Steel from Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling: Application in SOFC Interconnectors

“…After filtration and washed in deionized water, the cathode material was dried under ambient conditions for 24 h. The final product was dissolved in 10 mL of 6 mol/L H 2 SO 4 , 8 mL of 36% v/v H 2 O 2 and 200 mL of distilled water. The solution was kept under stirring and heating at 80 • C for 2 h [41,[45][46][47][48][49]. After cooling to room temperature, the solutions were filtered and the pH adjusted to 3.0 [27,29,[50][51][52] with the addition of sodium acetate.…”

“…For "A" solutions, the cyclic voltammetry graphs are shown in Figure 1. It can be seen that for all solutions, the cathodic reduction current starts at around −0.8 V and grows as the potential becomes more negative, indicating the reduction of metal ions present in the solution [28,29,41,52]. According to Karpuz et al 2015 [29], the electrodeposition potential of Co-Mn alloy can be chosen based on values that produce reduction currents for both metals separately.…”

“…Thus, after the disposal of mobile phone batteries, the hydrometallurgical process allows its cathode recycling and reuse of the metals present in its composition [38]. In our previous work [41], the same recycling process was used to obtain a new anode for hydrogen production that was developed based on 430 stainless steel. In this present work, the mobile phones cathodes were dissolved under a hydrometallurgical process and produced a solution rich in Co and another in Mn.…”