Hydrometallurgical recovery of spent cobalt-based lithium-ion battery cathodes using ethanol as the reducing agent

Abstract A reducing agent can reduce Co3+ to Co2+ in LiCoO2, thus increasing the leaching efficiency and extraction rate of Co-based cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, ethanol was employed as the reducing agent to leach LiCoO2 obtained from LIBs in a sulfuric acid solution. The effects of operating temperatures (50–90 °C), dosage of ethanol (0-20 vol%), concentration of sulfuric acid (2–6 mol/L), and solid/liquid ratio (10–40  g/L) on the leaching efficiency of LiCoO2 were investigated. By adding 5 vol% ethanol in a 6 mol/L sulfuric acid solution at 90 °C, the extraction efficiency of Co and Li are both over 99%, meaning that ethanol can reduce Co3+ to Co2+ while the ethanol was oxidized to acetic acid. The dissolution of LiCoO2 obeys the residue layer diffusion control model. Although ethanol is a promising reducing agent, future efforts should pay to the management of the secondary wastewater. Overall, the ethanol can be used as a reducing agent to assist the leaching of cathode materials from spent LIBs.