Recovery of Active Materials from Spent Lithium-Ion Electrodes and Electrode Production Rejects

Abstract

This article describes two ways to recover valuable and ecologically critical active materials from spent lithium-ion electrodes and electrode production rejects, using the example of a system containing LiNi0.33Co0.33Mn0.33O2 (NMC) active material and a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF) binder. First, a physical process using thermal treatment and mechanical stressing to separate the coating from the aluminum foil is discussed. Furthermore, a wet chemical processing using the solvent n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is presented. Recovered coating materials from both processes were characterized by laser diffraction spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Additionally, recycling electrodes were produced and successfully tested in battery test cells.