Patent ID: 8858677

Claim:
A method of recovering a valuable substance from an electrode material of a lithium secondary battery, comprising: peeling off the electrode material containing the valuable substance and a resin binder from a metal foil of an electrode of the lithium secondary battery by immersing a plurality of pieces of the lithium secondary battery into a solvent to dissolve the resin binder; filtering a suspension of the solvent including the electrode material containing the valuable substance and a carbon material of the electrode obtained by the peeling, so as to separate and recover the electrode material containing the valuable substance and the carbon material; heating under an oxidative atmosphere the electrode material containing the valuable substance and the carbon material that has been separated and recovered by the filtering, so as to burn and remove the carbon material from the electrode material; and performing a reducing reaction of the electrode material containing the valuable substance by immersing the electrode material containing the valuable substance, which has been obtained by the heating, into a molten salt of lithium chloride containing a lithium metal.