An ecoefficient, economical and sustainable valorization process for the synthesis of Co3O4 from waste lithium-ion battery (LIB) by leaching-solvent extract-scrubbing-precipitation stripping route has been developed. Through an optimization, the waste LIB cathode was leached using 2000 mole/m3 of H2SO4 and 5 Vol. % of the H2O2 at a pulp density of 100 kg/m3 under leaching time 60 minutes and temperature 75 °C. From the separated leach liquor, cobalt was purified by saponified Cyanex 272. From cobalt, loaded Cyanex 272 impurities were scrubbed and the CoC2O4·2H2O was recovered through precipitation stripping. Finally, the precipitate was calcined to synthesize Co3O4, which is a precursor for LIB cathode materials manufacturing. From TGA-DTA, followed by XRD analysis it was confirmed that at 200 °C the CoC2O4·2H2O can be converted to anhydrous CoC2O4 and at 350 °C the anhydrous can be converted to Co3O4 and at 1100 °C the Co3O4 can be converted to CoO. Through reported route waste LIB can back to LIB manufacturing process through a versatile and flexible industrial approach.

We investigated the effect of pre-sintering process on the penetration behavior of Dy in a NdFeB sintered magnet which was grain boundary diffusion treated with Cu/Al mixed Dy source. The pre-sintering of a magnet was performed at 900oC in vacuum and then the pre-sintered body was dipped in the solutions of DyH2, DyH2 + Cu, and DyH2 + Al, respectively. The dipped pre-sintered body were then fully sintered 4 hours at 1060oC followed by a subsequent annealing. The pre-sintering apparently improved the diffusivity of Dy atoms. The penetration of Dy into the magnet extended almost to 2,000 μm from the surface, about four times deeper than that of the normally sintered and diffusion treated one, when the DyH2 + Al solution was used as a Dy source. However, the resulting increase of coercivity was about 4 kOe, somewhat lower than that of the normally treated one, mostly due to excessive oxide formation that hindered to make a continuous Nd-rich grain boundary phase and a core-shell type structure.

A nanocrystalline Ti alloy powder was fabricated using cryomilling. The grain size and lattice strain evolution during cryomilling were quantitatively analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) based on the Scherrer equation, Williamson-Hall (W-H) plotting method, and size-strain (S-S) method assuming uniform deformation. Other physical parameters including stress and strain have been calculated. The average crystallite size and the lattice strain evaluated from XRD analysis are in good agreement with the result of transmission electron microscopy (TEM).