Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are highvoltage, high-energy, and high-power density energy storage devices with long cycle life, therefore intensively applied in full and hybrid electric vehicles, portable electronic devices (computers, mobile phones, and tablet), and renewable (solar and wind) sector. [1,2] Typically, LIBs for such applications with estimated lifetime of around 3-10 years generate a vast amount of waste at their end-of-life. [3,4] It is estimated that over 11 million tonnes of spent LIBs will be discarded through to 2030, and only less than 5% of them are being recycled. [4] Moreover, due to rapidly increasing demand of LIBs, the price of crucial element resources (Li, Ni, and Co) is also significantly increasing. In contrast, the health and environmental concerns may arise in the event of large, accumulated quantities of cobalt and lithium metals, which typically constitutes up to 20 and 7 wt%, respectively, of LIB cathodes, as well as toxic and flammable electrolytes (e.g., lithium hexafluorophosphate, LiPF 6 ). [3][4][5] Therefore, efficient recovery of such raw materials in spent LIBs is extremely crucial.At present, LIBs are recycled commercially using well-known processes such as pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and direct recycling. [4] However, these processes do not extract the maximum value from their feedstock. For instance, pyrometallurgy, or smelting operate at very high temperature (over 1100 C), which eliminates several materials (carbon anode, plastic separator, and electrolyte solvents) through vaporization (electrolyte), combustion, and melting. The final product is a mixed alloy of cobalt, nickel, and copper. The concept of direct recycling is simple: keep the cathode crystal structure intact. The definition of direct recycling is the recovery, regeneration, and reuse of battery components directly without breaking down the chemical structure. It has also been called direct cathode recycling and cathode-to-cathode recycling. By recovering cathode material, several energy-intensive and costly processing steps can be avoided. Not only does recovery of more materials offer potential additional revenues, but also costs and other impacts from waste treatment can be avoided. Advantages include low temperatures and low energy consumption, and the avoidance of most impacts from virgin material production.

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The memristive device is a fourth fundamental circuit element with inherent memory, nonlinearity, and passivity properties. Herein, we report on a cost-effective and rapidly produced ZnO thin film memristive device using the doctor blade method. The active layer of the developed device (ZnO) was composed of compact microrods. Furthermore, ZnO microrods were well spread horizontally and covered the entire surface of the fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirmed that the synthesized ZnO was oriented along the c-axis and possessed a hexagonal crystal structure. The device showed bipolar resistive switching characteristics and required a very low resistive switching voltage (±0.8 V) for its operation. Two distinct and well-resolved resistance states with a remarkable 103 memory window were achieved at 0.2-V read voltage. The developed device switched successfully in consecutive 102 switching cycles and was stable over 102 seconds without any observable degradation in the resistive switching states. In addition to this, the charge–magnetic flux curve was observed to be a single-valued function at a higher magnitude of the flux and became double valued at a lower magnitude of the flux. The conduction mechanism of the ZnO thin film memristive device followed the space charge limited current, and resistive switching was due to the filamentary resistive switching effect.

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