High purity Alumina from Industrial Slag; Material Processing and its Use in Secondary Li ion Batteries

Ceramic coating of separators in conventional Li ion batteries is implemented to stabilize the system to short-circuiting, which typically results from puncturing of the separator by Li metal dendrite formation. High-purity alumina (HPA) is currently the most widely used choice for separator coatings. HPA is commercially produced by reacting aluminum with alcohol to form alkoxide, which is further hydrolyzed to obtain the final product - a process which is both highly energy demanding and expensive. This poster presented a possible pathway for obtaining alumina from a Si/Al industrial slag mix, developed within a valorization project funded by EIT RawMaterials. Further purification steps and calcination of the aluminum-based by-product aims to produce HPA for use in Li-ion batteries, ultimately maximizing the utilization of the slag while also presenting a potentially less energy intensive pathway to obtain HPA.