Rapid Degrading Carbamazepine in a Novel Advanced Oxidation Process of Bisulfite Activated by Lithium Cobaltate Recovered from Spent Lithium-ion Battery

Maximizing the sustainable recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) shows economic and environmental significance. This study recovered lithium cobaltate (LiCoO₂, LCO) from spent LIBs cathode powder. The recovered LCO was then combined with NaHSO₃ to remove refractory organic pollutants of carbamazepine (CBZ) in water. The degradation of CBZ reached 80.0% within 60 min, by ¹O₂, \({\rm{SO}}_4^{ - \cdot }\) $${\text{SO}}_4^{-\cdot }$$ , \(^ \cdot {\rm{OH}}\) $${}^{\cdot }\text{OH}$$ and \({\rm{O}}_2^{ - \cdot }\) $${\text{O}}_2^{-\cdot }$$ generated in the LCO/NaHSO₃ reaction. The electron transfer between Co (III) and Co (II) was beneficial to the generation of free radicals. The LCO/NaHSO₃ degraded CBZ effectively in both secondary outlet water and tap water. However, high concentrations of inorganic ions (Cl⁻, HCO ₃ ⁻ , HPO ₄ ²⁻ , SO ₄ ²⁻ , NO ₃ ⁻ ) and natural organic matter (humic acid, HA) could inhibit the degradation of CBZ. After three cycles, the stability of the LCO/NaHSO₃ system was demonstrated by the maintained high efficiency in the degradation of CBZ. The obtained data indicate that the LCO/NaHSO₃ system holds great application potential in the field of advanced oxidation degradation of pollutants.