Explore the Nano World
Wen's Research Group
Wen Zhang, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE
Principal Investigator
Professor
Phone: (973) 596-5520
Fax: (973) 596-5790
Email: wen.zhang@njit.edu
Office Location: Colton Hall 211
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On Nov 25th, 2019, Dr. Wen Zhang’s team members joined the 2019 New Jersey Institute of Technology Graduate Student Research Day (NJIT-GSA) and presented their research. Our master student, Ms. Leqi Lin, achieved a second-place award in this competition with over 60 graduate students attended, where most of them are Ph.D. students. Leqi’s research is “Recovery of valuable metals from spent-Lithium-ion batteries using organic acids: assessment of techno-economic feasibility” with funding support from EPA Pollution Prevention (P2) grant (Grant No. NP96259118) and NJIT Undergraduate Research Innovation (URI) phase I and II grants (2018 fall).
In her research, she designed Li and Co recovery condition from LIBs with organic aqua regia with more efficient procedure. By avoiding the use of high temperature heating and organic solvent pretreatment, the recovery process could be made greener and more economically viable. With the help of ultrasonication and organic acids, the leaching efficiency was increased to over 85%. The project also analyzed the changes of the cathode properties before/after leaching, further proving the leaching mechanism with UV-vis, XRD and SEM.