The invention discloses a method for selectively recovering
lithium from waste
lithium batteries and preparing
lithium carbonate. The method comprises the following steps: mixing waste battery positive
electrode powder with a nitrating agent to obtain a mixture, performing a
nitration reaction on the mixture to obtain a
nitrate product, calcining the
nitrate product is at 200-550 DEG C to obtain calcined sands, leaching the calcined sands, performing
solid-liquid separation to obtain a lithium-rich filtrate, adjusting the pH value of the lithium-rich filtrate to be 10 or more, performing
solid-liquid separation to obtain a purified liquid, adding the purified liquid to a soluble
carbonate solution, carrying out a reaction, performing
solid-liquid separation, and performing
water washing and
drying on the obtained filter residues to obtain the
lithium carbonate. A principle that the
decomposition temperature of
lithium nitrate is obviously higher than that of corresponding nitrates of
copper,
cobalt, aluminum and
manganese is ingenious utilized to realize selective separation and
recovery of lithium, and the lithium
recovery rate in the invention is 20% or above more than that of conventional wet technologies. The high-purity
lithium carbonate can be obtained without a complicated purification process, and the method has the advantages of simple process, low cost, high recoveryefficiency of valuable metals, and convenience for industrial production and application.