Regeneration of NCM622 from end-of-life lithium-ion battery cathode materials

Shuai Gu; Ting He; Jiao Kong; Tongtong Fu; Zirui Guo; Jingzhi Cui; Zhihao Chen

doi:10.1039/d2ra06937g

Regeneration of NCM622 from end-of-life lithium-ion battery cathode materials

RSC Adv. 2023 Jan 4;13(2):906-913. doi: 10.1039/d2ra06937g. eCollection 2023 Jan 3.

Authors

Shuai Gu^{1

2}, Ting He^{1

2}, Jiao Kong^{1

2}, Tongtong Fu³, Zirui Guo³, Jingzhi Cui³, Zhihao Chen³

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Research Center for Integrated Utilization of Salt Lake Resources, East China University of Science and Technology Shanghai 200237 China gushuai@ecust.edu.cn.
² Joint International Laboratory for Potassium and Lithium Strategic Resources, East China University of Science and Technology Shanghai 200237 China.
³ School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology Shanghai 200237 China.

Abstract

The boom of the electric vehicle industry significantly aggravates the demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), especially the ternary cathode materials, however, the majority of end-of-life (EOL) LIBs on the market are batteries utilized in customer electronics. Here, we utilized the mixed EOL LIBs from cell phones and laptops to manufacture the LiNi_0.6Co0_.2Mn_0.2O₂ (NCM622) cathode material. A feasible, high efficiency (99.98% Co, 99.98% Ni, 99.99% Mn, and 99.99% Li), and ultra-fast leaching of EOL LIB cathodes was achieved. Thermodynamic calculations suggested that the coordination number, coordination species concentrations, and fractions have significant effects on the apparent activation energy and the equilibrium of the leaching reactions. The remanufactured NCM622 cathode material demonstrated a well-ordered layered hexagonal structure with a low Li⁺/Ni²⁺ mixing ratio, which facilitated reliable reversible capacity, low polarization, high rate capabilities (163.8 mA h g^-1), and capacity retention ratio (94.3%).