Recycling of spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has received increasing attention in recent years, because of the increasing usage of LIBs in electronic products and the potential leakage of heavy metals to the soil when they are disposed to the landfills. Chemical precipitation has been widely applied in the recycling process of spent LIBs. However, most processes are developed based on trial and error, leading to the possibility of recovering the wrong product in the precipitation process or excess usage of chemicals. Solid−liquid equilibrium (SLE) phase behavior governs the products to be recovered from the precipitation process and can be used to guide and optimize the process. Case studies on the recycling of LiFePO 4 and LiCo x Mn 1−x O 2 have been studied in this paper to demonstrate how the SLE phase behavior can be used to design the recovery process. Both case studies illustrate that pure metal salts can be recovered from the precipitation process with high recovery. The case studies also demonstrate how the SLE phase behavior helps to rationalize the separation process developed by previous researchers based on trial and error. The SLE phase behavior can be utilized to determine the optimal operating conditions such as the amount of precipitant to be added to the system. With the insights provided from the SLE phase behavior, new process alternatives can be generated. Process alternatives can be compared with the base case process to determine the optimal process for recycling metal salts from spent LIBs.

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A facile route is described for the regioselective conjugation of organo-soluble polymers onto chitosan under very mild conditions, using SCC as intermediates. SCC could be prepared simply by mixing chitosan acidic aqueous solution with SDS. PEG or PCL were then grafted to SCC using the NHS/DCC coupling method. In addition, the polymers were found to be linked to chitosan through the hydroxyl groups of chitosan when stoichiometric SCC was used as a precursor. SDS could be removed simply by either precipitating the solution of SCC-graft-polymer in DMSO into Tris aqueous solution or dialyzing against Tris solution.

3′-trifluoropropyl)cyclotrisiloxane (II), and hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane (D 3 ) (III), respectively, in 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS). Solutions of a UV-sensitive diaryliodonium salt (0.5 wt %) and oligomers VII-IX were cast as uniform layers onto clean glass microscope slides and steel coupons. UV irradiation of these liquid layers rapidly converted them to cross-linked films (X-XII). Thermal stability of these films was determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Glass transition temperatures (T g s) were measured by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). Static contact angles of distilled water on the air-film interfaces of X-XII have been determined with a goniometer. Dynamic contact angle (DCA) measurements have also been carried out on free-standing films. Corrosion protection of steel coupons by X-XII was evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) during exposure to 0.5 N NaCl. Antifoul and foul-release properties of X-XII were studied by settlement and removal tests with the barnacle Balanus amphitrite and with spores and sporelings of the green alga Enteromorpha.

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A systematic procedure is developed to obtain the stationary probability density for the response of a nonlinear system under parametric and external excitations of Gaussian white noises. The procedure is devised by separating the circulatory portion of the probability flow from the noncirculatory flow, thus obtaining two sets of equations that must be satisfied by the probability potential. It is shown that these equations are identical to two of the conditions established previously under the assumption of detailed balance; therefore, one remaining condition for detailed balance is superfluous. Three examples are given for illustration, one of which is capable of exhibiting limit cycle and bifurcation behaviors, while another is selected to show that two different systems under two differents sets of excitations may result in the same probability distribution for their responses.