Atmospheric Leaching of Copper in +0.5mm Crushing Product from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries in Ammoniacal Solutions

Ammoniacal solution system containing ammonia and ammonium carbonate was used as leaching media for the removal of copper in the +0.5 mm crushing product from the spent lithium-ion batteries(LIBs).Leaching test was carried out at room temperature and under normal atmospheric pressure conditions by introduction of air.The experimental results showed that with the aeration of 50 L/h,the reaction time of 7 h,and the solution not stirred,all copper could be absolutely leached out in the 1∶9(v/v) solution systems,while in 1∶19 and 1∶4 solution systems,the copper leaching rate was 94.71% and 66.62% respectively.When the aeration was 25 L/h,leaching out all the copper in the 1∶9 solution took 23 h,but stirring can speed up the reaction,in this case,the leaching time could be reduced to 3 h,while with the aeration of 50 L/h,the leaching was reduced from 7 h to 2 h.Besides,the pH presented the regularity of gradually decreasing in the process.