Recovery of battery-grade products from mixed spent LiFePO4/LiMn2O4 cathodes via slurry electrolysis

A facile and efficient of two-stage slurry electrolysis process comprising of precipitation and separation steps was proposed to recover different metals from the mixed spent LFP and LMO cathodes simultaneously. Benefitting from the presence of LFP, the leaching efficiency of LMO was enhanced in the first-stage slurry electrolysis. Fe and Li in the lixivium can then be easily recovered as pure FePO4 and battery-grade Li2CO3 in the precipitation and separation steps, respectively. Finally, the battery-grade MnO2 is produced in the second-stage slurry electrolysis. The total recovery rates of Li, Mn, and Fe are as high as 89.83 %, 88.69 % and 94.42 %, respectively. In addition, the integrated process of the two-stage slurry electrolysis is simple and easy to perform on industrial scale and introduces remarkable economic and environmental benefits.