Recycling of LiNi 0.5 Co 0.2 Mn 0.3 O 2 Material from Spent Lithium‐ion Batteries Using Mixed Organic Acid Leaching and Sol‐gel Method

A novel closed-loop recycling system of mixed organic acid leaching and sol-gel method re-synthesis for LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 cathode material is designed. Mixed organic acid solution consisting of 0.4 mol/L DL-malic acid and 0.1 mol/L ascorbic acid was applied to the leaching procedure. Under optimal conditions (temperature: 70 °C, time: 30 min, slurry density: 20 g/L), the leaching efficiency of Li, Ni, Co, and Mn is 99.06 %, 97.11 %, 96.46 %, and 97.22 %, respectively. DL-malic acid has a stronger chelate tendency with metal ions in the mixed acid leachate, which is verified by the UV-Vis spectra and FT-IR spectra. Without adding extra chelating reagents to the leachate, LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 material is regenerated by the sol-gel method directly. Electrochemical performances of the re-synthesized LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 material exhibit an excellent initial charge and discharge capacity of 156.0 mAh g−1 and 145.2 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C, respectively. As an alternative to LIBs recovery, the advantages of this recovery method are low reagents consumption and environmentally benign.