Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

A process involving mechanical, thermal, hydrometallurgical, and sol-gel step has been applied to recover cobalt and lithium from spent lithium ion batteries and to synthesize LiCoO2 from leach liquor as cathodic active materials. Electrode materials containing lithium and cobalt could be concentrated with 2-step thermal and mechanical treatment. Hydrogen peroxide in 2 M HNO3 solution turned out to be an effective reducing agent by enhancing the leaching efficiency. Of many possible processes to produce LiCoO2 , the amorphous citrate precursor process (ACP) has been applied to synthesize powders with a large specific surface area and an exact stoichiometry. When the precursor was calcined at 950oC for 24 hr, purely crystalline LiCoO2 was successfully obtained. The particle size and specific surface area of the resulting crystalline powders were 20 mm and 30 cm2 / g, respectively. The LiCoO2 powder was proved to have good characteristics as cathode active materials in charge/discharge capacity and cyclic performance.