Rosie Madge1,2,Abbey Jarvis1,2,Laura Driscoll3,Paul Anderson1,2,Peter Slater1,2
University of Birmingham1,Faraday Insitution2,UKBIC3
Rosie Madge1,2,Abbey Jarvis1,2,Laura Driscoll3,Paul Anderson1,2,Peter Slater1,2
University of Birmingham1,Faraday Insitution2,UKBIC3
Worldwide there has been an increase in the use of electric vehicles which has led to a consequent increase in the number of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) that need to be recycled. Recycling is commonly performed using pyrometallurgical and/or hydrometallurgical processes. These methods focus on the recovery of high value metals, such as Ni and Co, from the batteries. Alternative methods are therefore required to ensure that the entire battery is recycled and that the critical materials contained within the batteries are utilized in a meaningful way.<br/><br/>This work investigates recycling cathode material from an end-of-life Gen 1 Nissan Leaf (2011 model, 40,000 miles) which contains a mixture of LiMn<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4 </sub>(LMO) and LiNi<sub>0.8</sub>Co<sub>0.15</sub>Al<sub>0.05</sub>O<sub>2</sub> (NCA). LMO is combined with NCA to provide good thermal stability along with high capacity and long lifetime.<sup>1,2</sup> The use of such a blended cathode mixture increases the complexity of recycling as there are more components within the cathode that must be considered during recycling processes. A method has been developed which can selectively leach LMO from the cathode material using organic acids.<sup>3 </sup>The separated LMO and NCA can then be regenerated and reused in new LIBs.<br/><br/>However, LMO is no longer favoured commercially, therefore this work investigates upcycling it into higher value materials. LMO has been upcycled to form a range of cathode materials, such as LiMn<sub>1.5</sub>Ni<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>4 </sub>(LMNO) and Li<sub>4</sub>Mn<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>, a cation disordered rocksalt. These upcycled cathodes have been shown to have a comparable electrochemical performance to cathodes synthesised using pristine starting materials. This therefore demonstrates that end-of-life cathode materials can be upcycled to form new higher value cathode materials.<br/><br/>References:<br/>1. P. Albertus, J. Christensen and J. Newman, <i>J. Electrochem. Soc.</i>, 2009, <b>156</b>, A606.<br/>2. H. Y. Tran, C. Tacubert, M. Fleischhammer, P. Axmann, L. Kuppers and M. Wohlfahrt-Mehrens, <i>J. Electrochem. Soc.</i>, 2011, <b>158</b>, A556–A561.<br/>3. WOPat., WO2022084668A1, 2022.