Full-Lifetime Recycling and Reutilization of Key Materials of Low-Cost and Sustainable Liquid Metal Batteries

Green and efficient recycling technology is an important challenge that restricts the large-scale application and sustainable development of energy storage batteries. Liquid metal batteries (LMBs) are considered to be the ideal choice for large-scale stationary energy storage due to the inherent advantages of low cost, long lifetime, and high safety. Herein, a full-lifetime recycling and reutilization strategy for LMBs based on facile molten salt electrochemical processes is proposed for the first time, which is verified in the Li||Sn–Sb LMBs. The achieved recycling efficiencies of anode, cathode, and electrolyte materials are ∼80, ∼94, and ∼60%, respectively. The Li||Sb–Sn LMBs based on recycled materials are constructed and exhibit excellent cyclic performance and a 99.2% capacity retention after 1500 cycles. Moreover, the estimated levelized cost of energy of the LMBs based on the recycling strategy can be reduced by 0.021 $ kW h–1, which is a 47.7% reduction. This work provides a new strategy for the full-lifetime recycling and reutilization of LMBs and a new roadmap for the sustainable development of electrochemical energy storage technology.