While lithium extraction technologies generally focus on ways to get the essential metal out of the ground, there’s another source to mine: existing batteries that no longer work. A new technique could now make that process economically viable.
While lithium extraction technologies generally focus on ways to get the essential metal out of the ground, there’s another source to mine: existing batteries that no longer work. A new technique could now make that process economically viable.
illini pride:
Enter the new technique from scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There, a team led by chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Xiao Su, has been spending time disassembling batteries and then submerging them in an organic solvent. This leads to a brine that contains lithium as well as other metals present in the batteries.
To harvest the lithium, the team developed a special electrode created from a copolymer consisting of molecules that attach to lithium and those that respond to an electrical current. When placed inside the brine and electrified, it sucked only lithium from the solution like a sponge, leaving other metals behind.