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The emerging field of direct recycling for spent Li-ion batteries offers significant advantages, such as reduced energy expenses and minimized secondary pollution, when compared to traditional pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods. This is due to its direct utilization of the spent cathodes as raw materials. However, efficient harvesting of spent cathode particles remains a challenge. To address this issue, this technical brief is the first to incorporate resonant acoustic vibration technology (RAV) as an efficient method for stripping cathode powders from spent Li-ion batteries. Our findings indicate that RAV-based techniques can achieve a stripping efficiency of up to 92%. A comparative analysis with conventional stripping methods, such as magnetic stirring, sonication, and curling-uncurling, reveals that RAV coupled with heat treatment provides unparalleled scalability and efficiency, eliminating the need for post-processing. Furthermore, the resulting cathode powders retain their original polycrystalline particle structures, with no impurities, such as carbon black or small aluminum fragments detected. These findings highlight the promise of RAV technology for large-scale recovery of electrode powders and its potential role in direct recycling of spent Li-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, three different solvents such as N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were used to recycle cathode active materials (CAM) from spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Both calcination and solvent dissolution processes were used. The cathode active materials recycled from DMF, NMP and DMSO solvent dissolution process were named as CAM 1, CAM 2 and CAM 3, respectively. Initially, cathode electrode cut into small pieces and then baked at 600 °C for 7 h in tube furnace under argon environment. In the send step baked electrode transferred to solvent and then continue reflux reaction 24 h. In the final step the Al foils were separated from the solution and the cathode active material were collected by vacuum filtration and heat treatment. The structure and morphology of the cathode active materials were characterized by using XRD, Raman, SEM and TEM instruments. The SEM morphology shows that PVDF polymer and acetylene black removed from the cathode active materials by calcination and solvent dissolution process. EDAX and mapping shows that CAM 3 is more pure and uniform morphology than CAM 1 and CAM 2 cathode active materials. The elemental analysis shows that CAM 1, CAM 2 and CAM 3 are NMC 532 cathode powder with a chemical formula Li (Ni 5 Mn 3 Co 2) O 2. XRD results show that R3m layered structure with strong crystalline peaks for all three recycled cathode active materials. Raman analysis confirms the presence of metal oxide. • High purity cathode materials were recycled by calcination and solvent dissolution process. • DMF, NMP and DMSO solvent were used for solvent dissolution processes. • Recycled cathode powder is NMC 532 with a chemical formula Li (Ni 5 Mn 3 Co 2) O 2. • R3m layered structure with strong crystalline peaks for recycled cathode active materials. • Globular cage like morphology with 0.2–10 μm particles size distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]