Advances in Direct Recycling of Lithium-Ion Electrode Materials

Nickel rich electrodes are of interest for use in next generation electric vehicle applications. Both new-scrap from original manufacturing and old-scrap from end of life batteries may require fees for processing because such "cobalt-lite" formulations have a low value of recoverable elements. For these materials, direct recycling technologies for recovery of electrode particles are not constrained by cobalt content. Coating of cathodes with molecular barriers is a strategy to improve the safety and life for of these electrodes. Coated cathodes can be adopted not only to improve 'first-life' cell performance, but also, when coupled with direct recycling technologies, facilitate the 'next-life' of low cost lithium-ion cathodes from scrap material. This paper demonstrates direct recycling of bare NMC 622 from used cells, and direct recycling of a similar, coated material.