Recovery of lithium and cobalt from spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs) using organic acids as leaching reagents: A review

Environmental restrictions and economic benefits have obliged countries to promote recycling processes from secondary resources like spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs) instead of using primary ones. In spite of the developments have been made on industrial scale for the technologies involved in recycling processes, most of these technologies suffer from lack of efficiency and echo-friendliness. To reduce the footprints of the recycling processes, several efforts are made. A major development area is the use of organic acids which are considered as promising agents for leaching of valuable metals from spent LIBs. In this review paper, we provided an overview of the recent status of the recycling technologies of spent LIBs using organic acids. For this purpose, necessity of green processes and advantage of organic acids in recycling of spent LIBs is discussed. To fully understand the effect of these agents, production, origin, application, and structure of organic acids that have been used in recovery of metals from spent LIBs are also addressed. Afterwards, recycling processes using organic acids, and benefits and drawbacks of using them are summarized and possible complexes formed by these agents are proposed. Eventually, development of different reducing agents, ultrasonic agitation, and evolution and future prospect of green processes in recycling of spent LIBs is reviewed.