Nickel recovery from spent nickel-metal hydride batteries using LIX-84I-impregnated activated charcoal

•Nickel (Ni) recovery from batteries is important for conservation/pollution control.•Previous recovery attempts used expensive solvents and solvent-extraction techniques.•The current study utilized activated charcoal with trace amount of LIX-84I solvent.•The combination of materials achieved 99.6 % Ni uptake from the battery leachates.•The process generated pure NiCl2.6H2O useful as catalyst and for Ni electroplating.