Low-temperature thermal pretreatment process for recycling inner core of spent lithium iron phosphate batteries

Spent lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries contain abundant strategic lithium resources and are thus considered attractive secondary lithium sources. However, these batteries may contaminate the environment because they contain hazardous materials. In this work, a novel process involving low-temperature heat treatment is used as an alternative pretreatment method for recycling spent LFP batteries. When the temperature reaches 300°C, the dissociation effect of the anode material gradually improves with heat treatment time. At the heat treatment time of 120 minutes, an electrode material can be dissociated. The extension of heat treatment time has a minimal effect on quality loss. The physicochemical changes in thermally treated solid cathode and anode materials are examined through scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The heat treatment results in the complete separation of the materials from aluminium foil without contamination. The change in heat treatment temperature has a small effect on the quality of LFP material shedding. When the heat treatment temperature reaches 300°C and the time reaches 120 minutes, heat treatment time increases, and the yield of each particle size is stable and basically unchanged. The method can be scaled up and may reduce environmental pollution due to waste LFP batteries.