Development of an Eco-Friendly Cathode Material Recycling Process Without a Separation Step

Among the recycling technologies for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), commercialized hydrometallurgical processes are currently widely used to separate and recover valuable metals, such as Ni, Co, and Mn, from used NCM cathode materials. However, these processes are limited by their ability to recover only limited amounts of Li, which requires post-extraction. In this study, reductive roasting and water leaching were applied to selectively preextract more than 99% of Li, which was then used to synthesize lithium carbonate (Li2CO3). Furthermore, instead of separating each valuable metal individually from used cathode materials, a coprecipitation reaction was employed to synthesize a precursor, which was subsequently mixed with the synthesized Li2CO3 to recycle LiNi0.6Co0.1Mn0.3O2 cathode material. Electrochemical performance evaluation showed that the initial discharge capacity and capacity retention of the recycled cathode materials were 1.5 mAh/g and 4.7%, respectively, lower than those of the virgin cathode materials; however, their overall performance was comparable. These results confirm that the proposed recycling process is effective for high-efficiency lithium recovery and cathode materials recycling.