Flotation Behavior and Surface Properties of Spent Lithium-ion Battery Electrode Materials

Lithium-ion batteries contain rich metal elements and a variety of toxic substances. Recycling waste lithium batteries can not only achieve resource recycling, but also prevent environmental pollution. In this paper, the flotation behavior of lithium-ion battery electrode materials was studied, taking waste power lithium manganese battery and commercial electrode material lithium manganese as research objects. The results show that commercial lithium manganate and commercial fossil graphite have opposite flotation behavior, while waste lithium manganate and waste graphite have similar hydrophobic flotation behavior. In the flotation separation of waste lithium manganate electrode materials, the flotation separation efficiency of lithium manganate and graphite is low, while the flotation separation efficiency of commercial lithium manganate and graphite is high. XRD, XPS, SEM, FT-IR and contact angle analysis show that the electrode materials of waste lithium batteries are coated with organic substances containing C, O, F and other elements, resulting in similar surface properties of positive and negative electrode materials, thus showing similar flotation behavior, which ultimately increases the difficulty of flotation separation of the two.