Recovery of LiCoO₂ from Wasted Lithium Ion Batteries by using Mineral Processing Technology

Abstract

Lithium cobalt oxide from a wasted lithium ion secondary battery (LIB) is recovered by means of flotation. At first, the wasted LIB was crushed by vertical cutting mill and classified by air table and vibration screen. Referring to the crushing and separating results, wasted LIB is represented by light materials (organic separator of anode and cathode of battery), metallic materials (aluminum & copper foil, aluminum case etc.) and electrode materials (mixture of lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO₂) and graphite).
Electrode materials were thermally treated in a muffle furnace at 773K, followed by flotation to separate LiCoO₂ and graphite. The fact that the surface of particles was changed from hydrophobic to hydrophilic due to the removal of binder from the surface at 773K.
Considering the results, 92% LiCoO₂ was recovered from electrode materials, whereas the purity was higher than 93%. The optimum conditions of flotation process were as follows: 0.2 kg/t kerosene as a collector, 0.14 kg/t MIBC as a frother and 10% pulp density.
The experimental results suggested that this process by using mineral processing technology, such as crushing, screening, flotation, etc., is feasible to recover LiCoO₂ from the wasted LIB representing a new recycling technique.