Efficient Oxidation Approach for Selective Recovery of Lithium from Cathode Materials of Spent LiFePO4 Batteries

Developing a green and efficient approach for recovering Li from cathode materials is important in recycling spent LiFePO4 batteries. A facile and efficient oxidation process was developed to selectively recover Li from spent LiFePO4 batteries. The common oxidant NaClO was used to avoid using acid or alkali in the leaching process. The leaching rate of Li reached 99.8% under the selective optimal leaching conditions of 0.54 mol/l NaClO, leaching time 60 min, leaching temperature 60°C and solid–liquid ratio 1 g/l. The high leaching efficiency can be ascribed to the combination of oxidability and high pH value of the NaClO solution. Meanwhile, leaching and precipitation were carried out simultaneously in this process, which promoted the leaching reaction. High performance LiFePO4/C was resynthesized using the recovered products. The specific capacity of the first discharge at 1 C was 147.1 mAh/g and the capacity retention rate at 1 C was 97.55% after 200 cycles. The oxidation approach is acid free and has low energy consumption for green recovery of spent LiFePO4 batteries.