Charge material for recycled lithium-ion batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019123402-A1
Application number	US-201816164952-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 19, 2018
Priority date	Apr 4, 2012
Publication date	Apr 25, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

Cathode material from exhausted lithium ion batteries are dissolved in a solution for extracting the useful elements Co (cobalt), Ni (nickel), Al (Aluminum) and Mn (manganese) to produce active cathode materials for new batteries. The solution includes compounds of desirable materials such as cobalt, nickel, aluminum and manganese dissolved as compounds from the exhausted cathode material of spent cells. Depending on a desired proportion, or ratio, of the desired materials, raw materials are added to the solution to achieve the desired ratio of the commingled compounds for the recycled cathode material for new cells. The desired materials precipitate out of solution without extensive heating or separation of the desired materials into individual compounds or elements. The resulting active cathode material has the predetermined ratio for use in new cells, and avoids high heat typically required to separate the useful elements because the desired materials remain commingled in solution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An active cathode material for a lithium-ion battery, comprising:
a charge material precursor resulting from a recycling stream of crushed disposed batteries, the charge material precursor having a ratio of charge materials based on a recycled battery chemistry and impurities resulting from the recycling stream, the recycled battery chemistry defining a molar ratio of elements in a resulting recycled battery, the charge material precursor further comprising virgin stock of elemental compounds added to meet the ratio of charge materials, the charge material precursor resulting from coprecipitation of a solution of the charge materials from the recycling stream and the virgin stock, the solution based on additions of the elemental compounds to achieve the ratio of charge materials, the recycling stream having ions resulting from previous charge cycles, and the charge material precursor resulting in a cumulative pore volume based on the ions from the recycling stream.

2 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the active cathode material results from sintering the charge material precursor with lithium carbonate to form the active charge material.

3 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the virgin stock includes new elemental compounds, the new elemental compounds based on a virgin form of refined elements corresponding to the charge materials.

4 . The composition of claim 3 wherein the virgin stock is between 10-90% of the charge material precursor.

5 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the recycled battery chemistry is nickel, manganese cobalt (NMC).

6 . The composition of claim 5 wherein the molar ration is one of equal proportions of Ni, Mg, Co; 50% Ni, 30% Mg, 20% Co; 60% Ni, 20% Mg, 20% Co; or 80% Ni, 10% Mg, 10% Co.

7 . The composition of claim 6 wherein the impurities are less than 2% of the charge materials precursor.

8 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the cumulative pore volume results from ions on the surface of particles from an agitated mass of raw materials in the recycling stream.

9 . The composition of claim 8 wherein the ions include impurities of Al, Cu and Fe.

10 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor results in a charge capacity of 150-160 mAh/gm at a discharge rate of 0.1 C.

11 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor results in a charge capacity of between 129.6-150 mAh/gm for supporting a discharge rate of 1.0 C.

12 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor results in a charge capacity of between 120.8-129.6 mAh/gm for supporting a discharge rate of 2.0 C.

13 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor results in a charge capacity of between 76.2-120-8 mAh/gm for supporting a discharge rate of 5.0 C.

14 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor results in a cumulative pore volume of between 0.000120-0.000160 ĉ3/g.

15 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor results in a cumulative pore volume of 0.000163 ĉ3/g.

16 . The composition of claim 1 wherein the charge material precursor is defined by particles having an average pore diameter of between 20.0-20.833 A.

17 . The composition of claim 1 wherein coprecipitation results from an adjustment of the pH to a range of 10.0-13.0 for precipitating the charge material precursor in a hydroxide form.

Assignees

• Worcester Polytech Inst

Inventors

• Wang Yan
• Gratz Eric
• Sa Qina
• Zheng Zhangfeng
• Heelan Joseph

Classifications

• C22B26/12

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title

• C01G53/50

  of the type (MnO2)n-, e.g. Li(NixMn1-x)O2 or Li(MyNixMn1-x-y)O2 · CPC title

• C01G49/02

  Oxides; Hydroxides {(C01G49/0018 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• C22B3/02

  Apparatus therefor · CPC title

• C22B47/0081

  Treatment or purification of solutions, e.g. obtained by leaching (C22B47/0054 takes precedence) · CPC title