Environmentally‐Friendly Lithium Recycling From a Spent Organic Li‐Ion Battery

Abstract

A simple and straightforward method using non-polluting solvents and a single thermal treatment step at moderate temperature was investigated as an environmentally-friendly process to recycle lithium from organic electrode materials for secondary lithium batteries. This method, highly dependent on the choice of electrolyte, gives up to 99% of sustained capacity for the recycled materials used in a second life-cycle battery when compared with the original. The best results were obtained using a dimethyl carbonate/lithium bis(trifluoromethane sulfonyl) imide electrolyte that does not decompose in presence of water. The process implies a thermal decomposition step at a moderate temperature of the extracted organic material into lithium carbonate, which is then used as a lithiation agent for the preparation of fresh electrode material without loss of lithium.

Perspectives in Lithium Batteries

“…206 It should be noted, however, that the development of organic batteries is clearly in its early stages and much remains to be done especially to achieve high energy/power density and cycling stability simultaneously. Besides, they can electrochemically operate both in solid and dissolved states in aqueous or nonaqueous electrolytes making them versatile in terms of electrochemical storage devices.…”

Novel approach to recover cobalt and lithium from spent lithium-ion battery using oxalic acid

“…On the other hand, LIBs can regularly release toxic organic compound and then cause an inescapable risk for environment and public health while disposed improperly [10,11]. The two facts and risk of resource depletion drive the spent LIBs should be recovered in an appropriate manner [12,13] .…”

Sustainable Materials for Sustainable Energy Storage: Organic Na Electrodes

“…Battery electrodes can be thermally destroyed using low-temperature processes, and Li 2 CO 3 can been recovered from the resulting ash using extraction in water and ethanol [17]. If using organic materials from biomass, this closes the entire loop for the battery lifecycle (Figure 2).…”