Cobalt separation from waste mobile phone batteries using selective precipitation and chelating resin

Separation of cobalt from mixed-waste mobile phone batteries containing LiCoO2 cathodic active material was investigated using selective precipitation and chelating resin. Cobalt was recovered from the active powder materials containing 47 % Co oxide together with Mn, Cu, Li, Al, Fe, and Ni oxides. The metal ions were leached sufficiently using 4 M HCl. The metal ions detected spectrophotometrically were removed from the leaching solution by selective precipitation at pH 5.5, with cobalt loss of 27.5 %. Conditions for achieving a recovery of Co in the filtrate by chelating resin were determined experimentally by varying the pH and time of the reaction, as well as the initial resin-to-liquid ratio. The cobalt was efficiently determined by absorption spectrometry at lambda (max) 510 nm. Chelating polyamidoxime resin was synthesized by polymerization of acrylonitrile and followed by amidoximation reaction. Physically cross-linked gel of polyacrylonitrile was made by a cooling technique.