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- Language
- English
- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received February 6, 2026
Accepted April 28, 2026
Available online September 25, 2026
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Most Cited
Ultrasound Coupled Chemical Leaching of Metals from W-LIBs using Organic Acids: An Intensify Green Approach
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-026-00737-9
Abstract
The present study explores a sustainable and efficient approach for the extraction of valuable metals such as lithium (Li),
cobalt (Co), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni) and iron (Fe) from waste lithium-ion batteries (W-LIBs) with weak organic
acids (gluconic acid (G.A.) and citric acid (C.A.)) and ultrasound (US) intensified weak organic acids chemical leaching
method. In this study, a systematic investigation has been performed to estimate the synergetic effect of G.A. and C.A.
with total concentration of 1 M under variable operative parameters. The operative parameters include leaching temperature
(45–125 °C), solid to liquid ratio (10–30 g/L), leaching time (0–240 min), and ultrasound (US) power (20–100%)
for Li and other metal recovery. It has been found that maximum recovery has been achieved at 0.5 M: 0.5 M G.A.: C.A.
composition, temperature- 125 °C, time- 210 min, S/L ratio- 10 g/L (for Li, Co), 25 g/L (for Fe, Ni, and Mn), power
rate- 60%. This study revealed that, 99.84, 96.74, 98.34, 99.40, & 99.87% of Li, Co, Fe, Ni & Mn respectively can be
recovered at optimized condition. While comparing the US intensified weak organic acids chemical leaching method with
weak organic acids based leaching method, it improves Li, Co, Fe, Ni & Mn recovery by 15.84, 6.64, 12.53, 13.09 &
4.3% respectively at optimized conditions. In addition, the W-LIBs powder and leaching residue have been characterized
by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with elemental mapping and Energy
Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDAX). Collectively, current study can establish a novel synergetic leaching approach coupling
with mixed weak acids with US power system. Overall it is demonstrating an extremely effective and ecologically
benign route for the leaching of precious metals from W-LIBs powder.
