Electrochemical recovery of Ni metallic in molten salts from spent lithium-ion battery
-
Jinglong Liang
,
Chenxiao Li
Abstract
Massive deployment of lithium-ion battery inevitably causes a large amount of solid waste. To be sustainably implemented, technologies capable of reducing environmental impacts and recovering resources from spent lithium-ion battery have been an urgent task. The electrochemical reduction of LiNiO2 to metallic nickel has been reported, which is a typical cathode material of lithium-ion battery. In this paper, the electrochemical reduction behavior of LiNiO2 is studied at 750 °C in the eutectic NaCl-CaCl2 molten salt, and the constant cell voltage electrolysis of LiNiO2 is carried out. The results show that Ni(III) is reduced to metallic nickel by a two-step process, Ni(III) → Ni(II) → Ni, which is quasi-reversible controlled by diffusion and electron transfer. After electrolysis for 6 h at 1.4 V, the surface of LiNiO2 cathode is reduced to metallic nickel, with NiO and a small amount of Li0.4Ni1.6O2 detected inside the partially reduced cathode. After prolonging the electrolysis time to 12 h, LiNiO2 is fully electroreduced to metallic nickel, achieving a high current efficiency of 98.60%. The present work highlights that molten salt electrolysis could be an effective protocol for reclamation of spent lithium-ion battery.
Funding source: National Natural Science Foundation of China
Award Identifier / Grant number: 51774143, 51674120
Funding source: Hebei Province Graduate Innovation Program
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2019S01
Author contribution: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
Research funding: This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51774143, 51674120), and the Hebei Province Graduate Innovation Program (Project No. 2019S01).
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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