Selective recovery of lithium and ammonium from spent lithium-ion batteries using intercalation electrodes

Recycling lithium-ion batteries has recently become a major concern. Ammonia leaching is commonly employed in such battery recycling methods since it has various advantages such as low toxicity and excellent selectivity toward precious metals. In this study, an electrochemical system with intercalation-type electrodes was used to investigate the selective recovery of lithium and ammonium from ammonia battery leachate. Using an activated carbon electrode as a counter electrode, the selectivity of lithium from the lithium manganese oxide (LMO) electrode and the selectivity of ammonium from the nickel hexacyanoferrate (NiHCF) electrode were examined within the system. The LMO//NiHCF system was next evaluated for lithium and ammonium recovery using a synthetic solution as well as real ammonia battery leachate. When compared to previous ammonium recovery methods, the results revealed good selectivity of lithium and ammonium from each LMO and NiHCF electrode with relatively low energy consumption for ammonium recovery (2.43 Wh g-N^-1). The average recovery capacity of lithium was 1.39 mmol g^-1 with a purity of up to 96.8% and the recovery capacity of ammonium was 1.09 mmol g^-1 with 97.8% purity from the pre-treated leachate. This electrochemical method together with ammonia leaching can be a promising method for selective resource recovery from spent lithium-ion batteries.