Development of Fluorine Fixation Processes for the Horizontal Recycling of Lithium.

In order to effectively recover Li from cathode active materials of lithium-ion batteries, model samples of LiCoO(2) mixed with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) were calcined at temperatures of 350-700 °C under an Ar or air atmosphere. Complete Li recovery was achieved by calcining the model sample at 400 °C under an Ar atmosphere, followed by water leaching. Additionally, to immobilize PVDF-derived F, an impurity in Li purification, we explored the use of calcium compounds (Ca(OH)(2) and CaCO(3)) and a layered double hydroxide in both dry and wet processing methods. In the wet process, F was fixed by adding Ca(OH)(2) to an aqueous LiF solution containing 1000 ppm of F. We confirmed that 98.6% of F was successfully removed from the solution after repeated fixation procedures. Furthermore, the unreacted Ca in the solution was separated and removed as CaCO(3) by concentrating the solution.