Lithium metal oxides may be regenerated under ambient conditions from materials recovered from partially or fully depleted lithium-ion batteries. Recovered lithium and metal materials may be reduced to nanoparticles and recombined to produce regenerated lithium metal oxides. The regenerated lithium metal oxides may be used to produce rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Method embodiments useful for recycling spent lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrodes to extract critical and/or valuable elements from LIBs are provided and involve mechanochemical processing of spent LIB electrodes in the presence of certain chemical agents to recover products that can include, but are not limited to, metallic solids such as elemental metals or metal alloys, and/or inorganic compounds, metal salts, or organometallic derivatives. The desired products can be separated from by-products and contaminants and further processed into LIB electrode materials or/and other substances.

Provided is high purity cobalt chloride having a purity of 5N (99.999%) or higher, and a manufacturing method of the high purity cobalt chloride via electrolysis, wherein cobalt having a purity of 5N or higher is used as an anode, a diluted hydrochloric acid bath having a pH of 1.5 to 3.0 is used as an electrolytic solution, the cobalt anode and a cathode plate are partitioned with an anion exchange membrane, and electrodeposition of the cobalt onto the cathode plate is thereby inhibited. An object of this invention is to provide a manufacturing method capable of providing high purity cobalt chloride at a higher purity and at a lower production cost than conventional methods. Under circumstances where demands for cobalt chloride may increase, cobalt chloride needs to be manufactured at high volume and at low cost, and the present invention offers a technique capable of satisfying the foregoing requirements.

An aqueous cobalt chloride solution purification method, in which impurities can be efficiently removed from a cobalt salt solution, includes bringing metallic nickel into contact with an aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride to remove an impurity by a substitution reaction, in which the pH of the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride is adjusted to not less than 1.5 and not more than 2.5. Since the pH of the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride is adjusted to not less than 1.5 and not more than 2.5, a passive film on a surface of the metallic nickel can be effectively removed, and the metallic nickel comes in contact with the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride, so that an impurity more noble than the metallic nickel can be precipitated by the substitution reaction. The metallic nickel is only brought into contact with the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride, and the impurity can be easily removed.

A high purity cobalt chloride having a purity of 5N (99.999%) or higher and a manufacturing method of the high purity cobalt chloride via electrolysis are provided. In the method, cobalt having a purity of 5N or higher is used as an anode, a diluted hydrochloric acid bath having a pH of 1.5 to 3.0 is used as an electrolytic solution, the cobalt anode and a cathode plate are partitioned with an anion exchange membrane, and electrodeposition of the cobalt onto the cathode plate is thereby inhibited. The manufacturing method is capable of providing high purity cobalt chloride at a higher purity and at a lower production cost than conventional methods. Under circumstances where demands for cobalt chloride may increase, cobalt chloride needs to be manufactured at high volume and at low cost, and the method disclosed herein provides a technique capable of satisfying the foregoing requirements.

The present invention provides an aqueous cobalt chloride solution purification method, in which impurities can be efficiently removed from a cobalt salt solution.

Provided is a method for bringing metallic nickel into contact with an aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride to remove an impurity by a substitution reaction, in which the pH of the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride is adjusted to not less than 1.5 and not more than 2.5. Since the pH of the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride is adjusted to not less than 1.5 and not more than 2.5, a passive film on a surface of the metallic nickel can be effectively removed. When the passive film is removed, the metallic nickel comes in contact with the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride, so that an impurity more noble than the metallic nickel can be precipitated by the substitution reaction. In addition, since the metallic nickel is only brought into contact with the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride, the impurity can be easily removed from the aqueous solution containing cobalt chloride.

A method for recovering hydrochloric acid and metal oxides from a chloride liquor is described. The method uses a chloride liquor including the metal and mixing the liquor and a matrix solution to produce a reaction mixture, wherein the matrix solution assists oxidation/hydrolysis of the metal with HCl production. In a preferred embodiment the matrix solution includes zinc chloride in various stages of hydration and an oxygen containing gas is added to the mix. A method where the improvement is the mixing of a liquor and a matrix solution where the solution assists hydrolysis of the metal with HCl production is also disclosed. The reactor is a column reactor in a preferred embodiment. Further disclosed is the method of using the matrix solution and a reactor for recovering hydrochloric acid and for oxidizing/hydrolysis of a metal.

A method for production of crystallized Cobalt (II) Chloride hexahydrate is disclosed, and an implementation includes preparing a first cobalt (II) chloride solution, separating impurities from the first cobalt (II) chloride solution to obtain a second cobalt (II) chloride solution, concentrating the second cobalt (II) chloride solution, cooling the concentrated second cobalt (II) chloride solution, and injecting CO.sub.2 gas into the cooled concentrated second cobalt (II) chloride solution at an atmospheric pressure in order for Cobalt (II) Chloride hexahydrate crystals to form in the cooled concentrated second cobalt (II) chloride solution.

Lithium metal oxides may be regenerated under ambient conditions from materials recovered from partially or fully depleted lithium-ion batteries. Recovered lithium and metal materials may be reduced to nanoparticles and recombined to produce regenerated lithium metal oxides. The regenerated lithium metal oxides may be used to produce rechargeable lithium ion batteries.