Sustainable Preparation of LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2–V2O5 Cathode Materials by Recycling Waste Materials of Spent Lithium-Ion Battery and Vanadium-Bearing Slag

Waste streams containing heavy metals are always of concern from both environmental and resource-depleting points of view. The challenges are in most cases related to the effectiveness for high-value-added materials recovery from such waste, with which the environmental impacts during recycling shall be low. In this research, two typical heavy-metal-containing waste streams, i.e., spent lithium-ion batteries and vanadium-bearing slag, were simultaneously treated, and this enables regeneration of the LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 cathode materials which was considered difficult because of the dislocation of nickel and lithium ions during electrochemical performance. By using the intermediate product during vanadium-bearing slag treatment, the vanadium-embedded cathode material can be prepared which delivers excellent electrochemical performances with a specific capacity of 156.3 mA h g–1 after 100 cycles at 0.1C with the capacity retention of 90.6%; even the additive amount is only 5%. A thin layer of vanadium oxide is found to be effective to promote electrochemical performance of the cathode material. Using the principles of green chemistry, this process enables high-performance cathode material regeneration without introducing extraction chemicals and with much lower environmental impacts as compared to traditional metallurgical technologies.