The increasing demand for portable electronic devices
and electric
vehicles (EVs) has triggered the rapid growth of the rechargeable
Li-ion battery (LIB) market. However, in the near future, it is predicted
that a large amount of spent LIBs will be scrapped, imposing huge
pressure on environmental protection and resource reclaiming. The
effective recycling or regeneration of the spent LIBs not only relieves
the environmental burdens but also avoids the waste of valuable metal
resources. Herein, a porous Co9S8/Co3O4 heterostructure is successfully synthesized from the
spent LiCoO2 (LCO) cathode materials via a conventional
hydrometallurgy and sulfidation process. The fabricated Co9S8/Co3O4 catalyst exhibits high
catalytic activity toward oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in an alkaline
solution, with an overpotential of 274 mV to achieve the current density
of 10 mA cm–2 and a Tafel slope of 48.7 mV dec–1. This work demonstrates a facile regeneration process
of Co-based electrocatalysts from the spent LiCoO2 cathode
materials for efficient oxygen evolution reaction.
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