Combined hydrometallurgical route for recovery of metals from spent LIB using hydrochloric acid and phosphonium ionic liquid

ABSTRACT This research explored the significance of Cyphos IL 101 in recovering metal values from waste LiMn2O4 batteries. Several leaching parameters were investigated to recover metals from the leach liquor of the battery material. The maximum leaching efficiency of Li (100%) and Mn (99.6%) was attained with 3.0 mol/L hydrochloric acid, 30°C, S/L ratio of 10 g/L, and 60 min leaching duration. The leaching process was diffusion-controlled. At pH 5.5, the separation of manganese and lithium exhibited excellent selectivity towards manganese over lithium using 0.1 mol/L Cyphos IL 101. 99.6% manganese extraction and negligible lithium extraction were obtained with two stages of counter-current extraction at A/O 1:1 predicted by the McCabe-Thiele plot. Using 0.1 mol/L hydrochloric acid, a stripping efficiency of 99.4% was attained for manganese.