Spherical fine cobalt powders were fabricated by new liquid reduction method. Commercial cobalt sufate heptahydrate was used as raw material. Also ethylene glycol was used as solvent and hydrazine-sodium hypophosphite mixture was used as reduction agent for the new liquid reduction method. A plate shaped cobalt powders with an approximately 300 nm were prepared by a traditional wet ruduction method using distilled water as solvent and hydrazine. Spherical fine cobalt powders with an average size of 1-3 μm were synthesized by a new liquid reduction method in 0.3M cobalt sulfate and 1.5M hydrazine-0.6M sodium hypophosphite mixture at 333K.

Cathode materials and their precursors are prepared with transition metal solutions recycled from the the waste lithium-ion batteries containing NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) cathodes by a H₂ and C-reduction process. The recycled transition metal sulfate solutions are used in a co-precipitation process in a CSTR reactor to obtain the transition metal hydroxide. The NCM cathode materials (Ni:Mn:Co=5:3:2) are prepared from the transition metal hydroxide by calcining with lithium carbonate. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses show that the cathode material has a layered structure and particle size of about 10 μm. The cathode materials also exhibited a capacity of about 160 mAh/g with a retention rate of 93~96% after 100 cycles.