• Resources Recycling
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.51-60
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• 2010

A study on the recovery of cobalt and lithium from Lithium Ion Battery(LIB) scraps has been carried out by a physical treatment - leaching - solvent extraction process. The cathode scraps of LIB in production were used as a material of this experiment. The best condition for recovering cobalt from the anode scraps was acquired in each process. The cathode scraps are dissolved in 2M sulfuric acid solution with hydrogen peroxide at $95^{\circ}C$, 700 rpm. The cobalt is concentrated from the leaching solution by means of a solvent extraction circuit with bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid(D2EHPA) and PC88A in kerosene, and then cobalt and lithium are recovered as cobalt hydroxide and lithium carbonate by precipitation technology. The purity of cobalt oxide powder was over 99.98% and the average particle size after milling was about 10 lim. The over all recoveries are over 95% for cobalt and lithium. The pilot test of mechanical separation was carried out for the recovery of cobalt from the scraps. The $Co_3O_4$ powder was made by the heat treatment of $Co(OH)_2$ and the average particle size was about 10 ${\mu}m$ after grinding. The recovery was over 99% for cobalt and lithium each other and the purity of cobalt oxide was over 99.98%.