Andressa Mazur

My research focuses on developing precipitation-based strategies for the selective recovery of critical metals — lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese — from leachates generated during lithium-ion battery recycling. My doctoral project investigates approaches to improve selectivity and reduce process steps by evaluating: thermodynamic and operational behaviour of hydroxide precipitation in multi-metal systems; exploring oxalate-based simultaneous precipitation of transition metals and downstream lithium carbonate recovery; examining the application of synthetic polymer additives to control particle properties in oxalate system; and investigating biobased functional materials — specifically whey protein and cellulose-derived nanoparticles — including the functionalization of these materials to tune their interactions with specific metal ions and steer precipitation pathways.