Lithium Recovery from Electrodes in Cellphone Batteries through the Leaching Process with Organic Agents Assisted by Ultrasound

Abstract

The present work proposes a mean for recovery of metals used in current ion-lithium batteries, like lithium, cobalt and nickel, using organic agents and ultrasound instead of the more aggressive and less environment friendly method with sulfuric acid. This is especially useful in those countries that doesn’t have lithium deposits and have a growing demand of such batteries, reducing the economic loss this represents. During the process, variables such as temperature, leaching agent concentration and ultrasound frequency were modified, using concentrations of 0.5 M (molar), 1 M and 1.5 M of sodium citrate, temperatures of 25 ° C, 55 ° C and 60 ° C and also ultrasound frequencies of 20 KHz, 30 KHz and 40 KHz. It was found that the best combination of these variables that yielded the most quantity of the desired metal was 0.5 M concentration for both lithium and nickel, while using 60 ° C and no ultrasound with Li and 55 ° C and 40 KHz for Ni. For Co the best variables discovered were 1.5 molar concentration, 60 ° C and 40 KHz.