Kurchatov Institute National Research Centre, Moscow, Russia¹ ; MIREA — Russian Technological University, Moscow, Russia²

V. I. Nazarov, Deputy Head of Department¹, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Processes and Installations², Candidate of Technical Sciences, e-mail: nazarov_vi41@mail.ru

Kurchatov Institute National Research Centre, Moscow, Russia¹ ; Moscow Polytechnic University, Moscow, Russia²

D. A. Makarenkov, First Deputy Head of the Kurchatov Chemical Research Complex (IREA) Responsible for Research¹, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Processes and Installations², Doctor of Technical Sciences, e-mail: makarenkovd@mail.ru

Kurchatov Institute National Research Centre, Moscow, Russia

G. R. Aflyatunova, Laboratory Assistant and Researcher, e-mail: guzel.aflyatunova13@yandex.ru
A. P. Popov, Research Fellow, Postgraduate Student, e-mail: schrei6@yandex.ru

Today’s widespread application of lithium ion batteries in various electronic devices leads to the generation of great amounts of waste batteries. This paper describes a comprehensive process developed by Kurchatov Institute for recycling of lithium-cobalt batteries. The process involves such stages as discharging, mechanical treatment (loosening, disintegration and grin ding), leaching and extraction/chemical precipitation resulting in the output of the target pelletized product. A comparative study was conducted to compare the ball mill and disintegrator in terms of performance for obtaining mechanically activated powders from lithium-cobalt batteries. Parameters of ground and mechanically activated powders were determined, such as particle size distribution, mean equivalent diameter and specific surface of particles. It is proposed to assess the grinding quality by looking at the maximum, minimum and mean equivalent diameters of particles. The description of mechanical activation process in the recycling of lithium-cobalt batteries is based on the concept of inhomogeneous Markov process of particle production. Some equations of grinding kinetics are proposed that describe the mean diameter and specific surface of particles and the way they change during mechanical activation as a function of grinding time. Theoretical and experimental graphic dependencies are also included. Parameters of the equation of grinding kinetics were determined. The authors examined the leaching processes and found that a mechanical pre-activation of lithium-cobalt battery particles helps raise the yield of target products (Li, Co) by an average of 20%.

This research was carried out as part of Research Grant No. 21-19-00403: Understanding the Processes of Mechanochemical Destruction of Cathode Materials for Recovery of Cobalt and its Compounds, funded by the Russian Science Foundation.
The analytical study was carried out with the help of equipment owned by the Research Centre for Chemical Analysis at Kurchatov Institute.
The authors of this paper would like to thank Kurchatov Institute expert N. A. Kuznetsova for her support, advice and great contribution to the conducted experiments and analysis of results.

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