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Recycling of Cobalt Oxides Electrodes from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries by Electrochemical Method

Abstract:

Energy storage electrode materials suffer from high-cost production. For example, cobalt oxide price was increased from 20 to 60 USD per kg in 1998 and 2017, respectively. Consequently, seeking low-cost production methods is essential. Over the years, the ownership of electronic devices has transformed from a human luxury to basic requirements. Following the exponential growth in the electronic gadget demand, the invention of lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) has been the most used energy storage devices in the electronic devices. However, the disposal of LiBs in electronic devices is obvious due to the limited cycle life. In this context, the disposal of LiBs could be a source of environmental calamity, if it will not be treated correctly because of the contained toxic materials and heavy metals such as cobalt, manganese, nickel, and lithium. Furthermore, the recovery of such valuable heavy metals before LiBs disposal is important from the economic and environmental viewpoints. Many processes have been used to extract the cobalt from spent LiBs, such as solvent extraction, acid leaching, chemical precipitation, bioleaching, and electrochemical recovery. The recycled materials were successfully used in many applications, such as supercapacitors. This chapter discusses the fundamental of energy storage devices and illustrates the supercapacitor storage types based on electrical double-layer capacitors and the redox-based capacitors and their materials. Moreover, different approaches for recovering metals from LiBs as a supercapacitor electrode are discussed in detail.