Recycling of waste lithium-ion batteries as highly active fuel cell catalysts

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have become a major-stream technology for energy storage in the field of consumable electronics and electric vehicles (EVs) and much more applications. Yet, the amount of wastes produced at the end-of-life LIBs will be significant and the improper disposal of spent LIBs will cause environmental issues and threaten the public health.

A novel method of recycling the used LIBs to directly fabricate active catalysts for fuel cells, another promising energy-generating device, is developing and will be validated. A new thermo(electro)chemical method developed for collecting cathode materials from used LIBs is expected to simplify the current procedure, reducing the use/leak of hazardous chemicals, and thereby significantly lower the cost of both recycling LIBs and manufacturing fuel cells, as well as adverse impacts on environment. Based on the solid fundamentals on nanostructure fabrication and the experiences in electrocatalysis, key challenges of producing active catalysts from the LIB wastes will be tackled. It is expected to provide a rapid and scalable process of recycling LIB wastes, which will lead to an industrial collaboration for implementation in the next stage.