Ricerc@Sapienza

Secondary pollution from hydrometallurgical recycling of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) may affect the sustainability of the overall process. This study explores the valorisation of two LIB processing streams, namely iron-sludge and Mn-stripping effluent, as magnetic nanosized sorbents. A surfactant-autoclave synthesis route was developed to obtain CuFe2O4 from synthetic precursors. This same process was then applied to synthesise a quinary ferrite, CuCoMnNiFe2O4, from iron-sludge. Both products exhibited crystallite sizes below 20 nm.

In this article, we propose the fabrication of ZnO nanostructures through the thermal oxidation of ball-milled doped powders. We investigate the applications, advantages, and challenges of this two steps process for the production and fabrication of high-quality and high-performance nanowires to be used in a large variety of applications.