Hee-Seon Kim  Boram Kim  Dae-Weon Kim

Vol. 30,  No. 1, pp. 28-36, Mar.  2024
10.7464/ksct.2024.30.1.28

Spent LiFePO4 battery Separation of Fe and P Individual recovery Recycling

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As demand for electric vehicles increases, the market for lithium-ion batteries is also rapidly increasing. The battery life of lithium-ion batteries is limited, so waste lithium-ion batteries are inevitably generated. Accordingly, lithium was selectively pre- leached from waste lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, hereafter referred to as the LFP) cathode material powder among lithium ion batteries, and iron phosphate (FePO4) powder was recovered. The recovered iron phosphate powder was mixed with alkaline sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) powder and heat treated to confirm its crystalline phase. The heat treatment temperature was set as a variable, and then the leaching rate and powder characteristics of each ingredient were compared after water leaching using Di-water. In this study, lithium showed a leaching rate of approximately 100%, and in the case of powder heat-treated at 800 oC, phosphorus was leached by approximately 99%, and the leaching residue was confirmed to be a single crystal phase of Fe2O3. Therefore, in this study, lithium, phosphorus, and iron components were individually separated and recovered from waste LFP powder.