All-element recovery and regeneration of mixed LiNiCoMnO/LiFePO cathode materials by synergistic redox processes.

Given the rising lithium-ion battery retirement trend, there is a pressing need for a sustainable, cost-effective, versatile, and industrially viable positive active powder reprocessing method. The current treatment methods require significant amounts of acids, reducing agents, and other additives, resulting in increased treatment expenses and detrimental environmental consequences. This paper proposes a synergistic redox strategy, based on thermodynamic calculations of potential self-promoting reactions in mixed LFP/NCM systems, for the recovery of spent LFP and NCM batteries without the need for additional agents in a milder acidic atmosphere.

Al-doping enables high stability of single-crystalline LiNiCoMnO lithium-ion cathodes at high voltage.

LiNiCoMnO (NCM) is a kind of promising cathode material for lithium ion batteries because of its high capacities. However, the further commercialization of this material has been seriously hindered by the unstable structure at a deep de-lithiation state. Herein, it is identified that this drawback can be diminished by Al-doping, which is inherently stable in the lattice framework to restrain the structural collapse of LiNiCoMnO at a high cut-off voltage (4.