Advances and Challenges on Recycling the Electrode and Electrolyte Materials in Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), as the advanced power batteries with comprehensive performance, have widely used in electric vehicles (EVs), military equipment, aerospace, consumer electronics, and other fields. With the surge in demand for LIBs, the number of spent LIBs has increased rapidly. However, if the spent LIBs just are simply landfilled, the hazardous components contained in them such as heavy metals and organic electrolytes will pollute the environment, and ultimately threaten human health. In addition, some valuable components will be wasted by landfill, especially high-value metal elements contained in cathode. Thus, the recycling of spent LIBs is a “two birds with one stone” strategy which is not only beneficial to environmental protection but also has high economic value. Accordingly, great efforts have been made to develop efficient and cost-effective recycling processes for spent LIBs recovery. In line with the recycling process, this review first presents a series of pretreatment progresses (disassembling, inactivation, dismantling, and separation) and discusses the problems and challenges involved (automation, environmental protection, and cost, etc.). Second, we summarize and discuss the current recovery and regeneration technologies for cathode materials, including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy and electrochemistry. In addition, advances in the recovery of anode and electrolyte are also introduced. Finally, based on the current state of recycling, we cautiously make some suggestions and prospects for the future recycling of spent LIBs, with a view to providing more ideas for the recycling of used LIBs.