Abstract:Hydrazine sulfate was used as a reducing agent for the leaching of Li, Ni, Co and Mn from spent lithium-ion batteries. The effects of the reaction conditions on the leaching mechanism and kinetics were characterized and examined. 97% of the available Li, 96% of the available Ni, 95% of the available Co, and 86% of the available Mn are extracted under the following optimized conditions: sulfuric acid concentration of 2.0 mol/L, hydrazine sulfate dosage of 30 g/L, solid-to-liquid ratio of 50 g/L, temperature of 80 °C, and leaching time of 60 min. The activation energies of the leaching are determined to be 44.32, 59.37 and 55.62 kJ/mol for Li, Ni and Co, respectively. By performing X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, it is confirmed that the main phase in the leaching residue is MnO₂. The results show that hydrazine sulfate is an effective reducing agent in the acid leaching process for spent lithium-ion batteries.

Key words: spent lithium-ion batteries; reductive acid leaching; hydrazine sulfate; leaching mechanism; kinetics