• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.83-89
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• 2020

For the past few decades, as part of efforts to protect the environment where fossil fuels, which have been a key energy resource for mankind, are becoming increasingly depleted and pollution due to industrial development, ecofriendly secondary batteries, hydrogen generating energy devices, energy storage systems, and many other new energy technologies are being developed. Among them, the lithium-ion battery (LIB) is considered to be a next-generation energy device suitable for application as a large-capacity battery and capable of industrial application due to its high energy density and long lifespan. However, considering the growing battery market such as eco-friendly electric vehicles and drones, it is expected that a large amount of battery waste will spill out from some point due to the end of life. In order to prepare for this situation, development of a process for recovering lithium and various valuable metals from waste batteries is required, and at the same time, a plan to recycle them is socially required. In this study, we introduce a nanoscale pattern transfer printing (NTP) process of Li2CO3, a representative anode material for lithium ion batteries, one of the strategic materials for recycling waste batteries. First, Li2CO3 powder was formed by pressing in a vacuum, and a 3-inch sputter target for very pure Li2CO3 thin film deposition was successfully produced through high-temperature sintering. The target was mounted on a sputtering device, and a well-ordered Li2CO3 line pattern with a width of 250 nm was successfully obtained on the Si substrate using the NTP process. In addition, based on the nTP method, the periodic Li2CO3 line patterns were formed on the surfaces of metal, glass, flexible polymer substrates, and even curved goggles. These results are expected to be applied to the thin films of various functional materials used in battery devices in the future, and is also expected to be particularly helpful in improving the performance of lithium-ion battery devices on various substrates.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.56-65
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• 2022

Copper is one of the non-ferrous metals used in the electrical/electronic manufacturing industries due to its superior properties particularly the high conductivity and less resistivity. The effluent generated from the surface finishing process of these industries contains higher copper content which gets discharged in to water bodies directly or indirectly. This causes severe environmental pollution and also results in loss of an important valuable metal. To overcome this issue, continuous R & D activities are going on across the globe in adsorption area with the purpose of finding an efficient, low cost and ecofriendly adsorbent. In view of the above, present investigation was made to compare the performance of a plant root (Datura root powder) as a bio-adsorbent to that of the synthetic one (Tulsion T-42) for copper adsorption from such effluent. Experiments were carried out in batch studies to optimize parameters such as adsorbent dose, contact time, pH, feed concentration, etc. Results of the batch experiments indicate that 0.2 g of Datura root powder and 0.1 g of Tulsion T-42 showed 95% copper adsorption from an initial feed/solution of 100 ppm Cu at pH 4 in contact time of 15 and 30 min, respectively. Adsorption data for both the adsorbents were fitted well to the Freundlich isotherm. Experimental results were also validated with the kinetic model, which showed that the adsorption of copper followed pseudo-second order rate expression for the both adsorbents. Overall result demonstrates that the bio-adsorbent tested has a potential applicability for metal recovery from the waste solutions/effluents of metal finishing units. In view of the requirements of commercial viability and minimal environmental damage there from, Datura root powder being an effective material for metal uptake, may prove to be a feasible adsorbent for copper recovery after the necessary scale-up studies.