Fundamental Study on the Separation Characteristics of Cathode, Anode, and Lithium from Black Mass with the NMC Reduction in Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

In the recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries, the pretreatment process for recovering black mass generally consists of crushing and grinding, heat treatment to remove organic materials, and separation and classification to remove impurities.During heat treatment, depending on the heating temperature, the removal of organics, cathode reduction and lithium phase transformation can occur simultaneously.Therefore, this study discusses the fundamental separation characteristics of the cathode, anode, and lithium in a black mass associated with phase changes at the cathode reduction temperature.For this purpose, black mass was heat-treated at 550 for 2h under an N 2 atmosphere, and the flotation and magnetic separation