Recycling, Vol. 10, Pages 119: Graphene Recovery in Both Dispersed and Decanted Fractions from Lithium-Ion Battery Graphite via Sonication

Recycling doi: 10.3390/recycling10030119

Authors:
Erasmo Arriola-Villaseñor
Alba Nelly Ardila Arias
Santiago Bedoya Betancour
Luz Marina Ocampo-Carmona
Trino Armano Zepeda Partida
Sergio A. Gómez Torres
Gustavo Ariel Fuentes Zurita

In this study, graphene production via liquid-phase exfoliation assisted by sonication was evaluated using deionized water as a solvent and two graphite sources: one recovered from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and a commercial counterpart. A 750 W, 20 kHz ultrasonic processor was used, with sonication amplitudes ranging from 50% to 80% for two hours while maintaining a constant temperature of 45 °C. The resulting dispersions were left undisturbed for 24 h at ambient temperature to allow natural phase separation between decanted and dispersed fractions. These fractions were subsequently dried and weighed to determine exfoliation yield. High-quality graphene was successfully obtained via direct liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite recovered from LIBs, assisted by sonication in deionized water. Graphene formation was confirmed in both suspended and decanted fractions after two hours of sonication at 80% amplitude through complementary characterization techniques, including UV-Vis, Raman spectroscopy, HRTEM, and XRD. Comparative experiments using thermally pretreated battery graphite and commercial graphite revealed that graphene dispersions derived from untreated LIB-derived graphite exhibited greater long-term stability than those obtained from commercial or thermally pretreated battery graphite before sonication.

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