Recycling Electrode Materials of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries for High-Efficiency Catalyst Application: Recent Advances and Perspectives

With the rocketing demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the number of spent LIBs has been growing continuously in recent years, thus posing a waste disposal issue for the recycling industry. Moreover, those retired LIBs usually contain harmful metals and toxic chemicals that are highly hazardous to human health and the environment. Therefore, building an effective technique for recycling and reusing spent LIBs has received a great deal of attention in order to protect the environment and gain huge economic benefit. Up to now, the research on recycling electrodes has mainly concentrated on the recovery of those critical materials that can be reused for new battery production or efficient catalyst application. In this review, we have summarized the available technologies for recycling LIBs and addressed the advantages and disadvantages of different processes. Importantly, the reutilization of spent LIBs as effective catalysts including electrocatalysts, photocatalysts, thermocatalysts, and activation catalysts is highlighted. Finally, on the basis of current studies, some scientific challenges and perspectives for recycling and reutilizing spent LIBs as efficient catalysts are also put forward.