Chemical Dismantling Of Permanent Magnet Material And Battery Material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021036387-A1
Application number	US-202016873846-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 23, 2020
Priority date	Aug 2, 2019
Publication date	Feb 4, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Certain method embodiments are described and useful for recycling permanent magnet materials (e.g. permanent magnet alloys) and battery materials (e.g. battery electrode materials) to extract critical and/or valuable elements including REEs, Co and Ni. Method embodiments involve reacting such material with at least one of an ammonium salt and an iron (III) salt to achieve at least one of a liquid phase chemical reaction and a mechanochemical reaction.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method for dismantling a material comprising at least one of a rare earth metal, cobalt, and nickel, wherein the rare earth metal includes at least one of Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu, comprising the step of reacting the material with at least one of an ammonium salt and iron (Ill) salt using at least one of liquid phase chemical reaction or a mechanochemical reaction.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the dismantling is carried out a temperature from room temperature to about 100° C.

3 . The method of claim 1 where the dismantling is carried in the absence of water or another solvent using mechanical milling in the presence of at least one of the ammonium salt and iron (Ill) salt at room temperature to achieve a mechanochemical solid state reaction.

4 . The method of claim 1 where the dismantling is carried in the presence of water and of at least one of the ammonium salt and iron (III) salt using mechanical milling at room temperature to achieve the mechanochemical reaction.

5 . The method of claim 1 where the dismantling is carried in an aqueous environment or in a solution containing water as one component.

6 . The method of claim 1 where the dismantling is carried in aqueous environment at a temperature from room temperature to about 100° C. after mechanical milling of the material together with the salt.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein the material comprises at least one of a permanent magnet alloy and a battery alloy containing at least one of the rare earth metal, cobalt and nickel.

8 . The method of claim 1 that produces a water-soluble derivative of Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Ni or Co.

9 . The method of claim 1 comprising precipitation of at least one rare earth element in the form of a rare earth metal compound.

10 . The method of claim 1 comprising precipitation of cobalt or nickel in the form of a cobalt or nickel compound.

11 . The method of claim 9 including the further step of calcination to produce a rare earth metal oxide.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the ammonium salt contains at least one anion comprising a Cl − , Br − , I − , NO 3 − , HSO 4 − , SO 4 2− , and any other common anion.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the iron (III) salt contains at least one anion comprising a Cl − , Br − , I − , NO 3 − , HSO 4 − , SO 4 2− , and any other common anion.

14 . The method of claim 1 , using the ammonium salt to recycle a samarium-cobalt permanent magnet or magnetic alloy.

15 . The method of claim 1 , using the ammonium salt to recycle a rare earth-iron-boron permanent magnet or magnetic alloy.

16 . The method of claim 1 , using the ammonium salt to recycle a rare earth-containing magnet material or alloy and/or nickel-based battery material or alloy.

17 . The method of claim 1 , using the iron (III) salt to recycle a samarium-cobalt permanent magnet or magnetic alloy

18 . The method of claim 1 , using the iron (III) salt to recycle a rare earth-iron-boron permanent magnet or magnetic alloy.

19 . The method of claim 1 , using the iron (III) salt to recycle a rare earth-containing magnet material and/or a nickel-based battery material or alloy.

20 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the chemical reaction or mechanochemical reaction is carried out in an aqueous environment.

21 . The method of claim 20 , wherein the aqueous environment is maintained at a temperature between 0° C. and about 100° C.

22 . The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of mechanical milling and grinding is used to achieve the mechanochemical reaction.

23 . The method of claim 21 , wherein at least one of the mechanical milling and grinding is carried out in a ball mill, a planetary mill, a shaker mill, a crusher and grinder or another appropriate equipment for time period of at least 5 min, preferably between 5 min to 24 hours.

24 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the rare earth element is dissolved and then precipitated as a rare earth metal oxalate, rare earth metal sulfate, rare earth metal-sodium sulfate, rare earth metal phosphate, rare earth metal fluoride or any other insoluble rare earth salt.

25 . The method of claim 1 wherein the material comprises magnet scrap or battery scrap.

26 . The method of claim 25 wherein the magnet scrap includes shredded non-magnet components.

27 . The method of claim 1 wherein the material comprises at least one of grinding swarf, magnet scrap cuttings, polishing byproducts, magnet powders, and magnets derived from manufacturing processes including magnet manufacturing and additive manufacturing processes.

28 . The method of claim 1 including recovering the at least one of the ammonium salt and Fe(III) salt after the chemical reaction or mechanochemical reaction and then reused.

Assignees

• Univ Iowa State Res Found Inc

Inventors

• Balema Viktor
• Hlova Ihor
• Dolotko Oleksandr
• Pecharsky Vitalij K

Classifications

• C22B59/00

  Obtaining rare earth metals · CPC title

• C22B23/00

  Obtaining nickel or cobalt · CPC title

• C22B3/44

  by chemical processes (treatment or purification of solutions by liquid-liquid extraction C22B3/26, by ion-exchange extraction C22B3/42) · CPC title

• C22B3/14

  containing ammonia or ammonium salts · CPC title

• C22B1/005 Primary

  Preliminary treatment of scrap (C22B1/02 - C22B1/26 take precedence) · CPC title