Recycling Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Waste Benzene-Containing Plastics: Synergetic Thermal Reduction and Benzene Decomposition
Baolong Qiu, Mengjie Liu, Xin Qu, Beilei Zhang, Hongwei Xie, Dihua Wang, Lawrence Yoon Suk Lee, Huayi Yin
Abstract
Spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and benzene-containing polymers (BCPs) are two major pollutants that cause serious environmental burdens. Herein, spent LIBs and BCPs are copyrolyzed in a sealed reactor to generate Li 2 CO 3, metals, and/or metal oxides without emitting toxic benzene-based gases. The use of a closed reactor allows the sufficient reduction reaction between the BCP-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) gases and lithium transition metal oxides, achieving the Li recovery efficiencies of 98.3, 99.9, and 97.5% for LiCoO 2, LiMn 2 O 4, and LiNi 0.6 Co 0.2 Mn 0.2 O 2, respectively. More importantly, the thermal decomposition of PAHs ( e.g., phenol and benzene) is further catalyzed by the in situ generated Co, Ni, and MnO 2 particles, which forms metal/carbon composites and thus prevent the emissions of toxic gases. Overall, the copyrolysis in a closed system paves a green way to synergistically recycle spent LIBs and handle waste BCPs.