De Vita Lorenzo, Callegari Daniele, Bianchi Andrea, Tealdi Cristina, Zucca Noemi, Galinetto Pietro, Colledani Marcello, Quartarone Eliana
Department of Chemistry, University of Pavia, Via Taramelli 12, 27100, Pavia, Italy.
National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology INSTM, Via Giusti 9, 50121, Florence, Italy.
ChemSusChem. 2025 Sep 1;18(17):e202500550. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202500550. Epub 2025 Jul 8.
The demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is posing challenges in the management of end-of-life (EoL) systems and supply of critical raw materials. Such challenges can be addressed by recycling EoL LIBs through sustainable processes, involving metallurgy to recover higher-value metals like Co, Ni, and Li. Pretreatment strategies allowing to reclaim other valuable materials-such as graphite, binders, and electrolytes-are also crucial to enhance the overall recycling efficiency. Despite the strategic relevance of graphite in the battery supply chain, its recovery and reuse remain poorly explored. Herein, a sustainable closed-loop approach for the reclamation and reuse of graphite from EoL LIBs black mass is proposed, exploiting a low-impact froth flotation based on green chemicals. The recovered graphite is purified through a mild chemical leaching by natural organic acids and thermally treated to restore its microstructure from damages induced by the aging phenomenon. The regenerated material is characterized by multi-sample technique approach, demonstrating high separation efficiency (>96% yield) and purity (>99.6%). The direct recycling process is validated by reusing the reclaimed graphite as secondary anode active material in new cells, showing functional performance comparable to those of the commercially available material.
锂离子电池（LIBs）的需求给报废（EoL）系统管理和关键原材料供应带来了挑战。通过可持续工艺回收报废锂离子电池可以应对这些挑战，该工艺涉及冶金以回收钴、镍和锂等高价值金属。能够回收其他有价值材料（如石墨、粘结剂和电解质）的预处理策略对于提高整体回收效率也至关重要。尽管石墨在电池供应链中具有战略意义，但其回收和再利用仍未得到充分探索。在此，提出了一种可持续的闭环方法，用于从报废锂离子电池黑粉中回收和再利用石墨，该方法利用基于绿色化学品的低影响泡沫浮选。回收的石墨通过天然有机酸的温和化学浸出进行纯化，并进行热处理以恢复其因老化现象而受损的微观结构。通过多样品技术方法对再生材料进行表征，结果表明其具有高分离效率（产率>96%）和高纯度（>99.6%）。通过将回收的石墨作为二次负极活性材料重新用于新电池中，验证了直接回收工艺，其功能性能与市售材料相当。
