Abstract:In order to promote leaching of valuable metals from cathode material in spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs), the effective leaching of valuable metals from cathode materials of spent LIBs was realized by electrochemical reduction method. Effects of concentration of sulfuric acid, leaching time, temperature, and current density on leaching efficiency of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese was explored by single-factor experiment. The surface morphology, element distribution and phase composition of cathode materials before and after electrochemical leaching were analyzed by means of SEM and XRD. The results show that valuable metals are reduced assisted by electric field, the binder PVDF with a porous structure is mainly left after leaching of cathode material. The leaching efficiency of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese is 97.2%, 95.68%, 95.09% and 94.61%, respectively under the conditions including concentration of sulfuric acid of 0.8 mol/L, leaching time of 60 min, temperature of 50 ℃, and current density of 30 mA/cm2.