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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Batter. Electrochem.
Sec. Battery Materials Research
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbael.2024.1397122

Recycling Cathode Materials for Lithium-ion Batteries via Hydro-to-Cathode ® Method

Provisionally accepted
Jong Hyun Shim Jong Hyun Shim *
  • Ascend Elements, Westborough, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Due to the rising price and limited resource supply chain of Li[NixMnyCoz]O2 (x + y + z = 1) (NMC) cathode material, lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling technologies have been emerging as the best solution to address the price issue. Mainly, conventional hydrometallurgy processes have been applied to the LIB recycling field in recognition of its value. One remarkable advantage of the hydrometallurgy method is that it serves as a bridge to enable the Hydro-to-Cathode ® method. However, using recycled raw materials in the production of precursor cathode materials needs to be studied in parallel with the impurity (dopant) effect. The insufficient selective impurity removal technology leads to unexpected electrochemical properties in the final NMC cathode active material, which can be doped by several different impurities. Consequently, scrutinizing dopant elements (inorganic and organic) is critical if we want to consider the Hydro-to-Cathode ® method as a major recycling process of NMC cathode material.

    Keywords: Recycling, lithium-ion battery, Hydro-to-Cathode ®, cathode material, closed-loop system

    Received: 06 Mar 2024; Accepted: 11 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shim. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jong Hyun Shim, Ascend Elements, Westborough, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.