Cobalt recovery from leached solutions of lithium‐ion batteries using waste materials as adsorbents

Abstract In this research, chitin and rice husks were used as adsorbents to recover cobalt from leached solutions of lithium‐ion batteries. The waste materials were obtained and characterized. At first, the adsorption study was performed in batch systems using synthetic solutions, where the pH effect, kinetic, equilibrium, and thermodynamic aspects were investigated. Later, in the best conditions, chitin and rice husks were applied to recover cobalt from real leached solutions of lithium‐ion batteries. For both materials, the adsorption was favoured at pH = 6.0. The maximum adsorption capacities were 50.0 mg g−1 and 17.6 mg g−1 for chitin and rice husks, respectively, obtained at 318 K. The Co+2 recovery percentages from real leached solutions were 95.0 % and 40.0 % for chitin and rice husks respectively. These results revealed that chitin can be used as an alternative and low‐cost waste material to recover Co+2 from real leached solutions of lithium‐ion batteries.