Recycling and Upcycling Spent LIB Cathodes: A Comprehensive Review

Zhu

et al. 2023

Adv Funct Materials

Li‐rich manganese base oxides (LRNCM) are regarded as one of the most promising cathode materials among next‐generation high‐energy density Li‐ion batteries due to the coupling effect of anion and cation redox. However, serious oxygen release, surface structure corrosion, and transformation seriously damage their electrochemical performance and restrict their commercialization process. Herein, a dual gaseous surface treatment strategy with ammonium bicarbonate is designed to reconstruct the surface chemical and structural characteristics of LRNCM. As a result, an enriched oxygen vacancies mixed‐phase surface layer is achieved, which contains spinel phase and cation‐disordered phase. The integration of the surface mixed phase effectively inhibits irreversible oxygen loss, prevents electrode corrosion, and promotes fast Li‐ion diffusion. Accordingly, the modified cathode exhibits excellent specific capacity, high‐rate capability, and superior cycle life at both 25 and 60 °C. Particularly at high temperatures, it achieves impressive performance: initial coulombic efficiency (82.0 vs 74.4%), cycling stability at 1 C after 100 cycles (92.6 vs 83.8%), and rate performance at 5 C (56.0 vs 48.7%). This reconfiguration approach introduces a novel idea for the design of cathode material interfaces.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface Miscible Structure Modulation of Li‐Rich Cathodes by Dual Gas Surface Treatment for Super High‐Temperature Electrochemical Performance

Zhu

et al. 2023

Adv Funct Materials

“…5 The cathode takes up approximate 30 wt % of the battery and represents the highest value. 9 It contains many valuable metal resources, 10 such as nickel (8.0 wt %), cobalt (2.0 wt %), manganese (7.5 wt %), lithium (2.4 wt %), copper (16.3 wt %), and aluminum (8.5 wt %) in mixed type spent LIBs (Figure 1b). 5 Among them, Co, Li, and Ni are the most widely investigated targeted recycling metals due to the relatively high cost.…”

Section: Components and Degradation Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intercalated lithium metal oxides are commonly employed as active cathode materials, such as LiCoO 2 (LCO), LiMn 2 O 4 (LMO), and LiFePO 4 (LFP), LiNi x Co y Mn z O 2 (NCM, x + y + z = 1), and LiNi x Co y Al z O 2 (NCA, x + y + z = 1) . The cathode takes up approximate 30 wt % of the battery and represents the highest value . It contains many valuable metal resources, such as nickel (8.0 wt %), cobalt (2.0 wt %), manganese (7.5 wt %), lithium (2.4 wt %), copper (16.3 wt %), and aluminum (8.5 wt %) in mixed type spent LIBs (Figure b) .…”

Section: Components and Degradation Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Upcycling of Cathode Materials from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries: Progress, Challenges, and Outlook

Zheng,

Pan,

et al. 2023

Energy Fuels

With the growing popularity of electronic devices and electric vehicles, the number of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is increasing dramatically. It is a promising and sustainable strategy to recycle transition metal resources from cathodes of spent LIBs to prepare functional materials for energy storage and conversion systems. This review summarizes the recycling and upcycling of cathode materials from spent LIBs, especially the upcycling, an alternative route to direct regeneration. Multicomponent transition metal-based materials are reported to be promising effective catalysts with the merits of good electrochemical reactivity and excellent stability. The regeneration of metal-based materials from spent cathodes for catalysts are summarized, with an emphasis on oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts for water-splitting and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)/OER bifunctional catalysts for Zn–air batteries. Subsequently, we review in detail the upcycling of valuable components from spent cathodes to prepare electrode materials for supercapacitors. Finally, it concludes with challenges and an outlook to ensure long-term sustainability of battery industry.

“…Hydrometallurgy utilizes acids and extractants to leach metals and then to precipitate into high-purity precursors for new cathode materials. [4,5] Hydrometallurgy does not require as much energy as pyrometallurgy along with reduced CO 2 emissions. However, the process poses potential risks to workers and the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pitfalls of Deep Eutectic Solvents in the Recycling of Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Meles Neguse,

Yoon,

Lim

et al. 2024

Energy Tech

The exponentially increasing demand for lithium‐ion batteries and their limited lifetime lead to a significant increase in spent batteries. With the goal to address the sustainability and recyclability to minimize negative effects for the environment, an efficient process is vital to recover valuable materials from spent batteries by recycling. In this regard, deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have attracted huge interest, due to their unique ability to efficiently extract valuable metals from spent batteries, while also being rendered greener and more cost‐effective compared to current pyrometallurgy and/or hydrometallurgy. However, the DES approach also has its own set of challenges and drawbacks, which hinder the widespread use in the industry, including its restricted recyclability, high viscosity, low thermal and chemical stability, complex chemistry, as well as limited scalability. In this perspective, it is claimed that ongoing future research on the recycling of lithium‐ion batteries requires the exploration of alternative processes including modification of current hydrometallurgy processes, if the consistent improvements cannot be achieved in DES system for recycling valuable elements.