Dry delamination via inductive heating for direct recycling of LFP cathodes

Sustainable recycling of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes is essential to process battery waste, thus reducing resource depletion and lowering the carbon footprint of battery production. This study introduces a contactless delamination process using high-frequency induction heating to partially decompose the water-based carboxymethyl cellulose and styrene-butadiene rubber binders in LFP electrode production scrap within a temperature range that avoids damage to the LFP. Eddy currents induced in the aluminum current collector enable localized heating at the LFP composite–foil interface, allowing clean separation without toxic solvents or high-temperature furnaces. Variation of the process parameters showed that moderate heating (∼240 °C) weakens binder adhesion effectively while preserving the integrity of the LFP. Electrodes were fabricated from the recovered LFP composite and evaluated in lithium metal half cells. The best-performing recovered sample (240 °C with added conductive carbon) achieved ∼96 % of the discharge capacity of a recovered sample delaminated without the inductive heat treatment. These results confirm that inductive delamination, with careful temperature control, enables the recovery of high-quality LFP composite suitable for reuse. This method avoids the use of hazardous chemicals and is compatible with roll-to-roll processing, offering a scalable and environmentally-friendly route for direct cathode recycling. • Inductive delamination enables solvent-free LFP cathode recycling. • Localized heating of the aluminum leads to delamination at the cathode-Al interface. • Low-temperature delamination ensures optimal electrochemical behavior. • Reuse of recovered LFP in water-based cathodes shows promising performance.