Preparation of Anode Material of Lithium-Ion Battery by Spent Pickling Liquor

Spent pickling liquor (SPL) from the process of the stainless-steel pickling and lithium-ion battery anode material have similar elemental compositions. Inspired by this fact, a process of preparing lithium-ion battery anode materials from SPL is proposed in this work. Key steps of the preparation of precursor by co-precipitation, preparation of composite transition metal oxide (CTMO) by high-temperature ball milling, and preparation and electrochemical performance of anode materials were investigated. The Fe, Cr, and Ni resources of SPL were recovered by co-precipitation at pH = 11, and the leachate met the effluent discharge standard. The temperature of ball milling was studied in detail, with results indicating that the decomposition of CTMO precursors was incomplete at 400 °C and 500 after 3 h of treatment. Raising the temperature increases the reaction rate. For the ball milling process, a temperature of 600 °C is suggested. An anode material M_xO_y/C, with M = Fe, Cr, and Ni was manufactured, and its electrochemical performance was found to be similar or even superior to that of a single oxide. The process proposed in this study is feasible and has been successfully demonstrated, which provides a new approach to the treatment of similar wastes in the metallurgical field.