This study presents a new technique that uses high-temperature chloridizing -reduction-magnetic separation to recover iron from pyrite cinder containing non-ferrous metals. The effects of the reduction temperature, reduction time, and chlorinating agent dosage were investigated. The optimized process parameters were proposed as the following: CaCl2 dosage of 2 pct, chloridizing at 1398 K (1125 °C) for 10 minutes, reducing at 1323 K (1050 °C) for 80 minutes, grinding to a particle size of 78.8 pct less than 45 μm, and magnetic field intensity of 73 mT. Under the optimized conditions, the Cu, Pb, and Zn removal rates were 45.2, 99.2, and 89.1 pct, respectively. The iron content of the magnetic concentrate was 90.6 pct, and the iron recovery rate was 94.8 pct. Furthermore, the reduction behavior and separation mechanism were determined based on microstructure and phase change analyses using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and optical microscopy.

•LiCoPO4–Li3V2(PO4)3 composite as a potential cathode material for Li-ion batteries.•LiCoPO4–Li3V2(PO4)3 is synthesized from a novel precursor Co3V2O8.•The composite shows higher working potential than Li3V2(PO4)3.•The composite shows better rate capability than LiCoPO4.LiCoPO4–Li3V2(PO4)3 composite cathode material is synthesized by a chemical lithiation method, with Co3V2O8 as the precursor and oxalic acid as the reductant. XRD result indicates that the composite is composed of olivine-type LiCoPO4 and monoclinic Li3V2(PO4)3. TEM, HRTEM and FFT results show that the LiCoPO4–Li3V2(PO4)3 particles are wrapped with nano-carbon webs, and the crystal particles contain the lattice fringes and diffraction spots of LiCoPO4 and Li3V2(PO4)3. The composite shows the stepped charge–discharge platforms which contain the potential plateaus of LiCoPO4 (~4.8 V) and Li3V2(PO4)3 (~3.6, 3.7, 4.1 and 4.5 V). During the potential range of 3.0–5.0 V, the composite delivers the specific capacities of 163.7, 133.6 and 93.8 mA h g−1 at 0.05, 0.5 and 2 C rates, respectively, and shows good cycling performance.