In-situ precipitation of Metal–Organic Frameworks from a simulant battery waste solution

• A new strategy is proposed to separate metals from battery waste solution.
• Multi-Metalic Metal Organic Frameworks are formed.
• The solvothermal method has significant effect on shape of the Multi-Metalic MOFs.

A novel strategy is proposed to synthesize new materials from a simulant lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) model solution containing nickel, cobalt and manganese. Organic linkers, based on carboxylic acid, are introduced as leaching agents to precipitate the metals as polymers from a NiMnCo solution (NMC) in DMF. The supernatant is analysed by ICP-AES to quantify the efficiency and selectivity of the precipitation and the materials are characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD) and Thermogravimetric Analyses (TGA). The results have shown the possibility to form MOFs containing different metals from a multimetallic solution. We propose in this work a novel method that can be used to convert waste metal solution into valuable coordination polymers or for metal separation. This concept can give a new direction on the recycling process by changing the economic model through the development of higher value products as the basic raw metals.