Method for recovering active metal of lithium secondary battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021028515-A1
Application number	US-202017066734-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 9, 2020
Priority date	Apr 9, 2018
Publication date	Jan 28, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for recovering an active metal of a lithium secondary battery according to an embodiment of the present application whereby a used lithium-containing mixture is prepared, and the used lithium-containing mixture is treated with a hydrogen reduction to prepare a preliminary precursor mixture. The preliminary precursor mixture is washed with water to generate a lithium precursor including lithium hydroxide. Lithium hydroxide can be obtained by the washing treatment with high purity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for recovering an active metal of a lithium secondary battery, the method comprising:
preparing a used lithium-containing mixture; treating the used lithium-containing mixture with a hydrogen reduction to prepare a preliminary precursor mixture; and washing the preliminary precursor mixture with water to generate a lithium precursor including lithium hydroxide.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the preparing the used lithium-containing mixture comprises preparing a cathode active material mixture from a used lithium secondary battery.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the preparing the cathode active material mixture comprises:
separating a cathode including a cathode current collector, a cathode active material, a binder and a conductive agent from the used lithium secondary battery; and removing the cathode current collector by grinding the separated cathode or treating the separated cathode with an organic solvent.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogen reduction is performed through a fluidized bed reactor utilizing a hydrogen gas.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the preliminary precursor mixture includes a preliminary lithium precursor and a transition metal-containing product.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the preliminary lithium precursor includes lithium hydroxide, lithium oxide and lithium carbonate.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein lithium oxide and lithium carbonate included in the preliminary lithium precursor are removed by the washing with water.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein an aqueous lithium hydroxide solution is generated and the transition metal-containing product is precipitated by the washing with water.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising treating the precipitated transition metal-containing product with an acidic solution to regenerate a transition metal precursor.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the washing with water is performed in a carbon dioxide (CO 2 )-free atmosphere.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the washing with water includes purging water with nitrogen before reacting water with the preliminary precursor mixture.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the lithium precursor consists of lithium hydroxide.

Assignees

• Sk Innovation Co Ltd

Inventors

• Na Ji Ye
• Koo Min Su
• La Yeon Hwa
• Son Sung Real

Classifications

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• C22B7/002

  by treating with halogens, sulfur or compounds thereof; by carburising, by treating with hydrogen (hydriding) · CPC title

• C22B7/005

  Separation by a physical processing technique only, e.g. by mechanical breaking · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M10/54 Primary

  Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste accumulators · CPC title