Abstract: Recovery of Ni-Cd batteries was studied by a self-designed vacuum-aided recycling system under laboratory conditions. The impacts of temperature, pressure and time were studied respectively. The mechanism of vacuum thermal recycling was also discussed. The results show that, at constant pressure, the increase of temperature can improve the separation efficiency of cadmium. When the temperature is 1173 K, the cadmium can evaporate completely from the residue during 3 h at 10 Pa. The reduction of pressure in a certain range is effective to separate cadmium by vacuum distillation. Distillation time is a very important factor affecting separation of cadmium.

Key words: Waste Ni-Cd battery, Vacuum distillation, Resource recovery, Recycling technology, Environmental protection