Conversion of waste lithium-ion battery components into Li, Co, Ni, Mn based secondary products

The word waste literally means the remaining, useless material after a chemical process. However, when evaluated in terms of the ore content it contains, these materials contain higher purity raw materials than those found in nature. Therefore, it would be more accurate to call it an industrially processed raw material instead of the concept of waste. In this thesis, a model was created to determine the amount of lithium in the cathode component of the lithium-ion battery structure. Crystallographic information was obtained from the Crystallography Open Database (COD) for NMC and LCO batteries containing different Lix amounts, and theoretical XRD diffraction patterns were obtained. Using data such as the peak positions of the (003) and (104) planes in the obtained XRD diffraction patterns and the ratios of the peak intensities of these planes (I(003)/(104)), a model was created to determine the amount of Lix in different waste lithium battery contents. The determined missing Lix amount was supplemented to the structure from the Li2CO3 source and the crystal structure was repaired with the re-lithiation process so that it can be used in lithium-ion batteries again. In addition, studies have been carried out on the use of components obtained from anode and cathode cells in secondary applications. There are studies on the use of CoAl2O4 blue pigment production from cathode cells of lithium-ion batteries and the coloring of porcelain tiles with waste lithium-ion battery components. Studies have been carried out on the production of high purity ceramic carbides such as ZrC, TiC and B4C with carbothermal reduction reactions from anode graphite cells. In addition, the production of Ti3SiC2 MAXene phase compound from waste anode graphite cells has been carried out. A route has been drawn for the recycling journey of lithium-ion battery components, and the appropriate recycling method has been determined according to the characteristics of waste batteries. High value-added secondary products have been produced from waste batteries.