(245d) Electrochemical Recycling of Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode Materials to Manufacturing Feedstocks

Existing Li-ion battery recycling methods typically involve energy-, chemical-, and/or waste-intensive processes. Here we demonstrated a self-looped electrochemical battery recycling approach that enables a sustainable and efficient recovery of lithium and transition metals from spent cathode materials into battery manufacturing feedstocks. By operating electrochemical hydrogen evolution/oxidation reactions in a three-chamber porous solid electrolyte reactor, the initial input of Li2SO4 solution can be split into lithium hydroxide and sulfuric acid under high Li+ Faradaic efficiencies, high current densities, and low energy consumptions (starting from 0.36V), followed by a stoichiometric acid leaching and alkaline precipitation process to fully separate spent lithium metal oxides into high purity (> 99.7%) lithium and transition metal hydroxide products. The Li2SO4 solution was successfully restored at the end of each recycling cycle, which enables a sustainable process that does not consume external chemicals (except H2O2 to assist acid leaching), and avoids external cation contaminations or waste stream treatments.