Abstract:Address to higher cost and excessive environmental load of the hydrometallurgical strong acid leaching process, an acid-free extraction of valuable metals from spent ternary cathode materials was proposed via sulfation roasting with copperas followed by water leaching process. The effects of roasting conditions and leaching factors on leaching behavior of Li, Ni, Co, and Mn from spent cathode materials were investigated. The results show that the leaching rate of Li, Ni, Co, and Mn is 99.64%, 96.17%, 95.49% and 98.17%, respectively under the optimum conditions including roasting temperature of 600 ℃, mass ratio of copperas/spent-NCM of 10.5 g/g, roasting time of 180 min, water leaching temperature of 45 ℃, liquid-solid ratio of 5 mL/g, and leaching time of 120 min.