High-Performance Graphite Recovered from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

With the wide usage of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) in portable electronics, electric vehicles, and grid storage, recycling and reusing LIBs have attracted wide attention. However, due to the low added value and rigorous separation steps, recycling and recovering graphite anode materials are discarded. Although some direct physical recycling processes have been reported, all of them are limited by rigorous separation steps and lab scales. In this paper, a scalable recycling process for graphite anode materials from spent LIBs by a hydrometallurgical process without separation steps is reported. After the leaching process, graphite was separated by filtration as a residue with impurities. Then, all residual cathode materials, other metal impurities, most binding materials, and aluminum oxide were removed after releaching and fusion steps. Finally, high-quality graphite powder was obtained, and the recycled graphite exhibits a comparable discharge capacity of 377.3 mAh/g at 0.1 C.