Research progress of novel hydrometallurgy in recycling cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries
The green and efficient recycling of cobalt,nickel,lithium and other rare metals in spent lithium batteries has gradually become the focus of research at home and abroad.Traditional acid leaching owns the advantages of low energy cost,high purity of metal recovery and high efficiency.However,traditional acid leaching uses caustic acids and expensive extracts,takes a long time and produces secondary waste such as waste acids,sludge and highly saline solutions.Therefore,this paper focused on the application of green leaching agent and reducing agent in traditional acid-leaching and two novel green solvents of deep eutectic solvent(DES)and supercritical fluid(SCF)in the green and efficient recovery of cathode materials of lithium batteries.The important effects of selective leaching technology on simplifying recovery procedures and assisted means like microwave or ultrasonic on improving leaching conditions were reviewed.The application of supercritical water(SCW)and supercritical carbon dioxide(SC-CO2)to degrade organic pollutants,recover rare metals,and improve the synthesis of cathode materials was emphasized,which provided important reference value for efficient,green and low-cost recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium batteries.