Sustainable Recycling and Regeneration of Cathode Scraps from Industrial Production of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

The burst demand of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for energy storage leads to an increasing production of LIBs. The huge amount of electrode scraps produced during the industrial production cannot be overlooked. A sustainable and simple method was developed to regenerate Li­(Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3)­O2 electrode scraps as new cathodes for LIBs. Three different separation processes, including direct calcination, solvent dissolution, and basic solution dissolution, were applied to obtain the active materials. Then, a heat treatment was used to regenerate the scraps. The effects of separation methods and heat treatment temperatures were systematically investigated. The results show that the scraps regenerated with solvent dissolution and heat treatment at 800 °C deliver the highest reversible discharge capacities of 150.2 mA h g–1 at 0.2C after 100 cycles with capacity retention of 95.1%, which is comparable with commercial Li­(Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3)­O2 cathodes. When cycled at 1C, a highly reversible discharge capacity of 128.1 mA h g–1 can be obtained after 200 cycles. By contrast, scraps regenerated through a direct calcination method at 600 °C exhibit the best cycling performances, with the highest capacity retention of 96.7% after 100 cycles at 0.2C and 90.5% after 200 cycles at 1C. By characterizations of XRD, SEM, XPS, and particle size distribution analysis, the improved electrochemical performances of regenerated cathodes can be attributed to the uniform particle morphology and newly formed protective LiF composite. The simple and green regeneration process provides a novel perspective of recycling scraps from industrial production of LIBs.

Burgeoning Prospects of Spent Lithium‐Ion Batteries in Multifarious Applications

“…[1,4,17,37,61,62] These processes have remarkable disadvantages, for example, costly solvents, high emission of gases, complex recycling routes, and more www.advenergymat.de www.advancedsciencenews.com consumption of chemical reagents make these processes intricated to be implemented in industrial scale. [1,4,17,37,61,62] These processes have remarkable disadvantages, for example, costly solvents, high emission of gases, complex recycling routes, and more www.advenergymat.de www.advancedsciencenews.com consumption of chemical reagents make these processes intricated to be implemented in industrial scale.…”

“…In lixiviationsol-gel method, the recovered cathode material (NCM or LCO) from spent batteries is dissolved in either organic or inorganic acid media, and the leach liquor containing metal ions with the adjusted molar ratio is further coprecipitated to form a gel ( Figure 5). [62,71,72] [69,70] Occasionally, the extracted active material (LCO or NCM) is directly mixed with the lithium salts to restore the cathode, once the pretreatment is done (Figure 6).…”

“…[76] Zhang et al [77] used a technology comprises fluoro-organic acid leaching, coprecipitation, ball milling, and solid-state reaction to obtain NCM material. Likewise, Zhang et al [62] revived NCM in three different separation processes, i.e., direct calcination, solvent dissolution, and basic solution dissolution. Recently, merely 0.6 m oxalic acid is applied to recover the maximum amount of metal ions in a short time without the assistance of dangerous H 2 O 2 .…”

A Structured Literature Review on Obsolete Electric Vehicles Management Practices

“…A comparison among recycling methods is proposed by some authors [47], in which the final result defines the role of recycling policies that aim to incentivize battery collection and emissions reductions ( Table 2). [48] x [49] x [50] x [51] x [52] x [53] x [54] x [55] x [18] x [42] x [56] x [57] x [21] x [58] x [50] x [59] x [60] x [61] x [62] x [63] x [64] x [65] x [66] x [67] x [68] x [69] x [70] x [71] x [72] x [73] x [42] x [74] x [75] x [76] x [77] x [78] x [79] x [80] x [46] x [81] x [82] x [13] x…”

Direct Recycling of Aged LiMn2O4 Cathode Materials used in Aqueous Lithium‐ion Batteries: Processes and Sensitivities

“…These previous reports of direct recycling of cathode materials have some limitations –. First, to our knowledge, there have been no reports describing the direct recycling of aqueous‐based aged cathode materials.…”