A Fast Metals Recovery Method for the Synthesis of Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide Material from Cathode Waste

Second life and recycling: Energy and environmental sustainability perspectives for high-performance lithium-ion batteries

Second life and recycling of retired automotive lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have drawn growing attention, as large volumes of LIBs will retire in the coming decade. Here, we illustrate how battery chemistry, use, and recycling can influence the energy and environmental sustainability of LIBs. We find that LIBs with higher specific energy show better life cycle environmental performances, but their environmental benefits from second life application are less pronounced. Direct cathode recycling is found to be the most effective in reducing life cycle environmental impacts, while hydrometallurgical recycling provides limited sustainability benefits for high-performance LIBs. Battery design with less aluminum and alternative anode materials, such as silicon-based anode, could enable more sustainable LIB recycling. Compared to directly recycling LIBs after their electric vehicle use, carbon footprint and energy use of LIBs recycled after their second life can be reduced by 8 to 17% and 2 to 6%, respectively.

High Performance of Salt-Modified–LTO Anode in LiFePO4 Battery

Highly crystalline “zero-strain” Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) has great potential as an alternative material for the anodes in a lithium ion battery. In this research, highly crystalline LTO with impressive electrochemical characteristics was synthesized via a salt-assisted solid-state reaction using TiO2, LiOH, and various amounts of NaCl as a salt additive. The LTO particles exhibited a cubic spinel structure with homogenous micron-sized particles. The highest initial specific discharge capacity of LTO was 141.04 mAh/g with 4 wt % NaCl addition, which was tested in a full-cell (LTO/LiFePO4) battery. The battery cell showed self-recovery ability during the cycling test at 10 C-rate, which can extend the cycle life of the cell. The salt-assisted process affected the crystallinity of the LTO particles, which has a favorable effect on its electrochemical performance as anodes.

Recycle, Recover and Repurpose Strategy of Spent Li-ion Batteries and Catalysts: Current Status and Future Opportunities

The disposal of hazardous waste of any form has become a great concern for the industrial sector due to increased environmental awareness. The increase in usage of hydroprocessing catalysts by petrochemical industries and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in portable electronics and electric vehicles will soon generate a large amount of scrap and create significant environmental problems. Like general electronic wastes, spent catalysts and LIBs are currently discarded in municipal solid waste and disposed of in landfills in the absence of policy and feasible technology to drive alternatives. Such inactive catalyst materials and spent LIBs not only contain not only hazardous heavy metals but also toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Besides polluting the environment, these systems (spent catalysts and LIBs) contain valuable metals such as Ni, Mo, Co, Li, Mn, Rh, Pt, and Pd. Therefore, the extraction and recovery of these valuable metals has significant importance. In this Review, we have summarized the strategies used to recover valuable (expensive) as well as cheap metals from secondary resources-especially spent catalysts and LIBs. The first section contains the background and sources of LIBs and catalyst scraps with their current recycling status, followed by a brief explanation of metal recovery methods such as pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and biometallurgy. The recent advances achieved in these methods are critically summarized. Thus, the Review provides a guide for the selection of adequate methods for metal recovery and future opportunities for the repurposing of recovered materials.