Study on cobalt recovery by acid leaching from wasted Li-ion batteries

The technique of hydrometallurgical leaching cobalt from spent Li -ion batteries was investigated in this paper. Active material of wasted batteries was leached in the system of H2SO4 and H2SO4+H2O2, respectively. The process of leaching was suitable for shrinking core model. Addition of H2O2 could reduce the activation energy of the system benefiting the leaching process. The best process conditions were 85 ℃, 120 min, 4 mol/L H2SO4, 2.0 mL H2O2/g (powder), L/S 10. Under these conditions, the single leaching efficiency of Co was 93.2%.