Project 4-4

Purification, Regeneration and Reuse of Graphite from Lithium Batteries

Host institution:
Technische Universität Clausthal, Institute of Organic Chemistry

Supervision:
First supervisor: Prof. Dr. René Wilhelm, Institute of Organic Chemistry of TU Clausthal, rene.wilhelm(at)tu-clausthal.de

Second supervisor: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Daniel Goldmann, Institute of Mineral and Waste Processing, Waste Disposal and Geomechanics of TU Clausthal

PhD candidate:
Sukanya Sukanya, Institute of Organic Chemistry of TU Clausthal,
sukanya.sukanya(at)tu-clausthal.de

Project introduction:

High-quality graphite is used in lithium accumulators. However, its quality suffers in today's recycling processes in terms of its surface properties and its degree of graphitization. In order to purify the graphite from the black mass (contains the electrode-active materials and the conducting salt) under milder conditions and circumvent the existing problems, ionic liquids and functionalizations of graphite will be explored. These two approaches have so far not been pursued for the recycling of graphite from the black mass.

Specific objectives:

Stability studies of suspension of graphite form the black mass with different ionic liquids for separating the graphite
Modification of graphite via non-covalent and covalent functionalization
Isolation of modified graphite from the black mass and regeneration via de-functionalization
Evaluation of the quality of the recovered graphite including its use in lithium batteries
Exfoliating recovered graphite to graphene for next generation lithium batteries

Expected outcome:

Recovering high quality graphite from lithium batteries
Obtaining recycled graphite with the same specifications as the initial material
Preparing high quality graphene for new batteries

Project 4-4

Purification, Regeneration and Reuse of Graphite from Lithium Batteries

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