Mechanical crushing properties of spent cell phone lithium-ion batteries

The structure and mechanical crushing properties including compressive,tensile,bending,shearing strength and impact resistance of the spent cell phone lithium-ion batteries were analyzed.A wet impact crusher was used to achieve liberation of the spent cell phone lithium-ion batteries in a water medium.The results indicate that the mechanical properties of the spent cell phone lithium-ion batteries are similar to those of the plastic material with tough and soft characteristics.The simple way of the combination of all the components or parts makes the dissociation easily realized.For the fragmentation of the batteries,bending,shearing and impact crush are proved to be more effective.The plastic shell,isolation sheet,copper foil and aluminum foil are enriched in the 0.250 mm crushing product,while the LiCoO2 and C are mainly enriched in the less than 0.250 mm crushing product.LiCoO2 is enriched in the 0.075-0.125 mm product,and the content of Co is 36.58%.In addition,the contents of C enriched in the 0.125-0.250 mm and less than 0.075 mm product are 73.39% and 72.65%,respectively.The wet impacting crush is an effective way for selectivity crushing of the spent cell phone lithium-ion batteries.