Sustainable regeneration of spent cathodes for lithium-ion and post-lithium-ion batteries

The accelerating adoption of electric vehicles supports the transition to a more sustainable transport sector. However, the retiring of many electric vehicles over the next decade poses a sustainability challenge, particularly due to the lack of recycling of end-of-life batteries. Here we show regeneration routes that could valorize spent cathodes for a second life in both lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and post-LIBs. Our regeneration starts with a leaching process involving acetic acid that could selectively dissolve high-value elements in cathodes including lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese. Depending on the added chelating agents, further co-precipitation reactions in the leachate form precursors of different cathode materials. The regenerated lithium layered oxide cathodes deliver a reversible area capacity of up to 2.73 mAh cm−2 with excellent structural stability for LIBs, whereas the obtained Prussian blue analogues show 83.7% retention after 2,000 cycles for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). Life-cycle and techno-economic assessments suggest that the current regeneration can reduce manufacturing costs for LIBs and SIBs by US$21.65 kWh−1 and US$41.67 kWh−1, respectively, with lower impacts on human health, environment and natural resources. This work paves the way for the transition to more sustainable storage technologies. Battery recycling is essential to the sustainability of electric vehicles. Here the authors show processes that could regenerate spent cathode materials for a second life in lithium-ion and post-lithium-ion batteries.