High gradient magnetic separation for selective recovery of cathode materials from end-of-life lithium ion batteries

The increasing demand for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has made lithium and other cathode metals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese critical resources. At the same time, spent LIBs pose environmental hazards due to flammable electrolytes and toxic components, and conventional recycling methods are energy intensive and produce significant CO2 emissions. In this article, we demonstrate that high gradient magnetic separation can be used as a selective and efficient method for recovering the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) particles from spent LIBs. Using magnetic steel microspheres to locally intensify magnetic field gradients, we are able to separate approximately 99% of the LFP particles, which are highly paramagnetic, from the rest of the materials which are either diamagnetic (e.g., graphite) or nonmagnetic (e.g., binder polymers).