A green, efficient, closed-loop direct regeneration technology for reconstructing of the LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 cathode material from spent lithium-ion batteries

Xiaoping Fan; Chunlei Tan; Yu Li; Zhiqiang Chen; Yahao Li; Youguo Huang; Qichang Pan; Fenghua Zheng; Hongqiang Wang; Qingyu Li

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124610

A green, efficient, closed-loop direct regeneration technology for reconstructing of the LiNi_0.5Co_0.2Mn_0.3O₂ cathode material from spent lithium-ion batteries

J Hazard Mater. 2021 May 15:410:124610. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124610. Epub 2020 Nov 19.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China; Guangxi New Energy Ship Battery Engineering Technology Research Center, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Applications for Batteries of Zhejiang Province, and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. Electronic address: liyahao66@126.com.
³ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China; Guangxi New Energy Ship Battery Engineering Technology Research Center, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China. Electronic address: zhengfh870627@163.com.

PMID: 33243647
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124610

Abstract

Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide in the spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs) contains a lot of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. However, how to effectively recover these valuable metals under the premise of reducing environmental pollution is still a challenge. In this work, a green, efficient, closed-loop direct regeneration technology is proposed to reconstruct LiNi_0.5Co_0.2Mn_0.3O₂ (NCM523) cathode materials from spent LIBs. Firstly, the failure mechanism of NCM523 cathode materials in the spent LIBs is analyzed deeply. It is found that the spent NCM523 material has problems such as the dissolution of lithium and transition metals, surface interface failure and structural transformation, resulting in serious deterioration of electrochemical performance. Then NCM523 material was directly regenerated by supplementing metal ions, granulation, ion doping and heat treatment. Meanwhile, PO₄^3- polyanions were doped into the regenerated NCM material in the recovery process, showing excellent electrochemical performance with discharge capacity of 189.8 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 C. The recovery process proposed in this study puts forward a new strategy for the recovery various lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (e.g., LiNi_1/3Co_1/3Mn_1/3O₂, LiNi_0.5Co_0.2Mn_0.3O₂, LiNi_0.6Co_0.2Mn_0.2O₂ and LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂) and accelerates the industrialization of spent lithium ion battery recycling.

Keywords: Cathode material; LiNi(0.5)Co(0.2)Mn(0.3)O(2); Reconstructing; Regeneration technology; Spent lithium-ion batteries.