Sustainable and Direct Recovery of Lithium‐Ion Battery Cathodes From Production Scraps

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) represent the dominant energy storage technology, and as their demand continues to rise, the efficient recycling and recovery of critical elements from their cathodes become increasingly important. Direct recovery of active electrode materials from spent LIBs or electrode manufacturing scraps offers an effective strategy to obtain secondary materials that are ready for reuse in electrode reconstruction and reintegration into the LIB supply chain. In direct recycling processes, active materials must first be detached from their current collectors. This separation is typically achieved either through thermal decomposition of the binder, that is typically a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) like polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF), or by dissolving the binder in dipolar aprotic solvents, which are unsuitable for large-scale applications due to their toxicity. This study investigates the direct recovery of both active materials and the PVDF polymeric binder from real LiCoO2 cathode production scraps. Separation from aluminum and current collector was accomplished using the green solvent triethyl phosphate, while process parameters such as dissolution time, temperature, and solid-to-liquid ratio were systematically optimized. The recovered active material and binder were subsequently characterized using multiple analytical techniques and reused for electrode remanufacturing, confirming the effectiveness of this environmentally friendly and readily scalable process.