Selective extraction of valuable metals from the organic leachate of spent LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2 battery through a sequential co-precipitation-resin adsorption approach

Organic reductive leaching of spent lithium-ion battery materials offers a promising way to recover valuable metals, while the subsequent extraction of valuable metals from the organic leachate is seldomly studied. Herein, a green and efficient approach based on co-precipitation and resin adsorption was proposed for selective recovering valuable metals from the organic leachate of spent LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2 (NCM). In the co-precipitation process, the precipitation efficiencies of Al, Fe, and Cu impurities reached 95.5 %, 92.4 %, and 88.2 %, respectively, while the losses of Li, Mn, Co, and Ni were only 3.5 %, 2.5 %, 2.1 %, and 2.2 %, respectively. Subsequently, selective separation of Me (Mn, Co, and Ni) and Li from the purified solution was achieved via D113 resin adsorption with a high separation factor (βMe/Li) of 127, and the adsorption was an endothermic monolayer adsorption process controlled by chemical reactions. After elution with 2 M H2SO4, the Ni/Co/Mn-rich elute and Li-rich solution were utilized to synthesize the ternary precursors and Li2CO3, respectively. The regenerated materials exhibited excellent crystallinity and purity available for the synthesis of NCM cathode materials. The proposed approach possesses the benefits of low-cost and significant separation performance, providing new insights for the sustainable development of spent NCM under the organic recycling system.