Hydrometallurgical Synthesis of Nickel Nano-Sulfides from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

By developing technologies, spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are considered a great source of nickel-cobalt ions to fabricate metal sulfide nanoparticles. However, the presence unnecessary such as manganese and lithium may hamper formation pure nanostructures where utilization proper ligand(s) can be very critical. For this reason, present study initially introduces promising cost-effective acidic leaching followed by precipitation thermal treatment (~250 °C, 1 h) processes NiS nanopowders from LIBs, while considering potassium amyl xanthate precipitating agent. The produced nanoparticle’s size structure were characterized commonly used advanced analytical techniques X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission (TEM) photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). elemental distributions functional groups analyzed through energy dispersive (EDS) Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) methods. characteristic analyses spherical-like particles showed mean particle 61 ± 2 nm (by TEM) 64 (through PCS method) with high purities approved via XRD EDS analyses. Moreover, comparing obtained data standard ones perfect match hexagonal phase. We finally concluded that presented approach is practical efficient for converting LIBs an extremely valuable product. Future studies suggested fundamental conceptualization processes.