Efficient separation of aluminum foil from mixed-type spent lithium-ion power batteries

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2021-11, Vol.298, p.113500-113500, Article 113500
• Main Authors: Hu, Zhilin, Zhu, Nengwu, Wei, Xiaorong, Zhang, Sihai, Li, Fei, Wu, Pingxiao, Chen, Yijun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Al foil; Lithium-ion power battery; Mixed-type; Pyrolysis; Separation
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113500

The disposal of spent lithium-ion power batteries (LIBs) has become an important research topic owing to the booming market for electric vehicles. However, the recovery efficiency of the alkaline solution and organic solvent methods currently used to separate Al foil from cathode materials still has room for improvement. The insufficient separation of Al foil and complexity of the battery types present obstacles to the extraction of valuable metals using simple processes. In this study, an efficient approach is developed to separate the Al foil in mixed-type spent LIBs (M-LIBs), namely, LiNixCoyMnzO2 (NCM), LiFePO4 (LFP), and LiMn2O4 (LMO) LIBs, by controlled pyrolysis. Hundred percent of the Al foil was recovered at the temperature of 450 °C, holding time of 60 min, and heating rate of 10 °C/min. The purity of Al in the recovered foil was 99.41 %, 99.83 % and 99.92 %, and the recovery efficiency of the active cathode materials was 96.01 %, 99.80 % and 99.15 % for NCM, LFP and LMO, respectively, without the loss of active cathode materials. The obtained active cathode materials exhibited a favorable crystalline structure, and the average particle diameter was reduced from 300.497 to 24.316 μm with a smaller and looser morphology. The process could be well fitted with the Friedman differential equation, and the correlation coefficients were higher than 0.99. The efficient separation could be attributed to the complete rupture of long chain –(CH2CF2)–n bonds in the poly (vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF) binder, which resulted in the formation of HF, trifluorobenzene, alkanes, and gaseous single molecule CH2CF2. Therefore, this work potentially provides an alternative approach for the efficient separation of Al foil in M-LIBs, thereby simplifying the process and achieving lower cost, reduced loss of valuable metals, and higher recovery efficiency. [Display omitted] •The Al foil was completely separated from different types of cathode materials.•The Al foil with 99.92 % purity and 99.80 % active cathode materials were recovered.•The efficient separation could be attributed to the removal of PVDF binder.•The finer active cathode materials with intact crystal structure were obtained.•The obtained active cathode materials could be handled in a single processing line.