Recovery of LiCoO(2) and graphite from spent lithium-ion batteries by molten-salt electrolysis

The recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries has not only economic value but also ecological benefits. In this paper, molten-salt electrolysis was employed to recover spent LiCoO(2) batteries, in which NaCl-Na(2)CO(3) melts were used as the electrolyte, the graphite rod and the mixtures of the spent LiCoO(2) cathode and anode were used as the anode and cathode, respectively. During the electrolysis, the LiCoO(2) was electrochemically reduced to Co, and Li(+) and O(2−) entered into the molten salt. The O(2−) was discharged at the anode to generate CO(2) and formed Li(2)CO(3). After electrolysis, the cathodic products were separated by magnetic separation to obtain Co and graphite, and Li(2)CO(3) was recovered by water leaching. The recovery efficiencies of Li, Co, and graphite reached 99.3%, 98.1%, and 83.6%, respectively. Overall, this paper provides a simple and efficient electrochemical method for the simultaneous recovery of the cathode and the anode of spent LiCoO(2) batteries.