Due to its three-dimensional tunnel structure, the spinel LiMn2O4 (LMO) cathode material is highly favourable for the migration of lithium ions. Thus, LMO has been used as a commercial cathode material for the electronic devices such as mobile phones and electric vehicles, owing to its special characteristics of low-cost, eco-friendly and non-toxic. However, the scarcity of lithium resources makes the system expensive. On the other hand, the tremendous and increasing usage of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has undoubtedly generated a significant amount of spent LIBs, resulting in resource waste and environmental pollution. Therefore, in this work, we report on the recycling process of LMO from the spent LIBs and mainly devote to re-examine the electrochemical performances of the regenerated LMO cathode material, for the first time. It is noticed that, the renovated spinel LMO exhibits a better cycling stability up to 500 cycles, with the discharge capacity of 56 mAh g−1 and retained almost 100% of its initial capacity cycled at 1.0 C.
Herein, we report a method of recycling spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) cathode materials by utilizing them as a metal feedstock for the synthesis of Mn-based metal-organic frameworks (Mn-MOF). Spent cathodes were converted to manganese salts using acids (HCl and H2SO4) and reacted with commercial benzene-1,4-dicarboxylic acid (H2BDC), as an organic linker. The LIB-derived metal salts were compared to commercial available MnCl2 salt in the formation of Mn-MOFs. Mn-MOFs from spent LIBs (MOF(Cl2) and Mn-MOF(SO4)) exhibited similar morphological, structural and textural properties when compared to that obtained from commercial MnCl2 salt. HCl obtained MOF (Mn-MOF(Cl2)) was analysed for electrochemical properties due to its superior structural properties. It achieved coulombic efficiency of approximately 99% and discharge capacity of 1355 mAh g−1 as compared to Mn-MOF obtained using commercial salt (Mn-MOF(Com)) with a discharge capacity of 772.55 mAh g−1 at 100 cycles. The developed LIBs recycling strategy has the potential for contributing to existing LIBs recycling strategies and as well to the circular economy.
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