Nanoscale design of 1D metal oxides derived from mixed Ni-MH battery/transition metal dust

Samane Maroufi; Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei; Sajjad S Mofarah; Veena Sahajwalla

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125645

Nanoscale design of 1D metal oxides derived from mixed Ni-MH battery/transition metal dust

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Aug 5:415:125645. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125645. Epub 2021 Mar 16.

Authors

Samane Maroufi¹, Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei², Sajjad S Mofarah², Veena Sahajwalla²

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, SMaRT@UNSW, School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology, SMaRT@UNSW, School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.

PMID: 33740716
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125645

Abstract

Controllable recycling of End-of-life rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and by-products of steelmaking to added-value functional nanostructures is desired but challenging. The present work introduces an innovative and high-yield microrecycling strategy to simultaneous synthesis of TM alloy (i.e., Ni-based superalloy) and RE oxide (REO) nanostructures from obsolete Ni-MH batteries mixed with zinc-rich electric arc furnace dust (EAFD). This strategy involves integration of high-temperature thermal isolation followed by thermal nanowiring techniques. The impure thermally-isolated REOs were purified and transformed into one dimensional (1D) nanorods of hybrid REOs. Besides, during high-temperature thermal isolation, defect-rich ZnO with tailored structures of nanorods and nanoribbons were fabricated using controllable vapour deposition. The electrochemical performance of ZnO nanoribbons for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) revealed a considerable overpotential reduction of 131 mV (18%) compared to pure commercial nano-ZnO. This approach is transformational in providing a scalable and cost-effective pathway to facilitate recycling of the challenging, yet critical, waste materials into functional nanostructures for energy and environmental applications.

Keywords: 1D metal oxides; High-temperature thermal isolation; Hybrid rare-earth oxide nanorod; Value-added recycling of Ni-MH batteries; ZnO nanoribbon.