Environmentally Friendly Leaching
Some recent work has been done to see if organic acids can be used to leach lithium and cobalt from spent batteries with some success. Experiments performed with varying temperatures and concentrations of malic acid show that the optimal conditions are 2.0 M/L of organic acid at a temperature of 90 °C. The reaction had an overall efficiency exceeding 90% with no harmful byproducts.
- 4 LiCoO2(solid) + 12 C4H6O5(liquid) → 4 LiC4H5O5(liquid) + 4 Co(C4H6O5)2(liquid) + 6 H2O(liquid) + O2(gas)
The same analysis with citric acid showed similar results with an optimal temperature and concentration of 90 °C and 1.5 molar solution of citric acid.
Read more about this topic: Leaching (chemistry)
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