Investigating Lithium Ion Black Mass

A lithium-ion battery typically, prior to shredding contains 6 metals; copper, aluminium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and lithium, surrounded by a lithium-based electrolyte. On shredding the battery, the electrolyte is captured, and the remains is a black mass of the 6 metals. By sieving, the majority of copper and aluminium can be removed. The remains in the black mass are lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. The separation of these metals has proven to be difficult due to their similar chemistries and traditional chemistry methods can be highly lengthy, time consuming and resource intensive. Novel chemistries have been developed and the most promising is the diffusion of metals and extracting in a control manner. This can be achieved by using specialised organic chemicals developed for solvent extraction. The use of specialised chemicals, i.e Solvay of Cyanex 272 and DEHPA. Here we investigate special chemicals and their interaction witthe metals from Black Mass