Scientists have discovered a way to recycle nearly 100 per cent of the materials within lithium-ion batteries.
The eco-friendly method can help address the urgent need to deal with e-waste from old smartphones and electric cars, according the the team of Chinese researchers who came up with it.
The discovery uses tiny micro batteries to break down the lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from a battery, before using an amino acid to extract the metals.
The use of glycine as the amino acid avoids using harsh chemicals for the recycling process, as well as the creation of toxic byproducts.
The newly developed system is able to recover 99.99 per cent of the lithium, 96.8 per cent of the nickel, 92.35 per cent of the cobalt and 90.59 per cent of the manganese from old batteries in just 15 minutes.
The breakthrough came from a collaboration between Central South University in Changsha, Guizhou Normal University, and the National Engineering Research Center of Advanced Energy Storage Materials.
Battery waste has become an increasing problem in recent years due to the massive demand for consumer electronics like smartphones and laptops, as well as the electrification of the automotive industry.
A recent report from Stanford University in the US, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that recycling lithium-ion batteries is far more environmentally friendly than mining for new materials.
Current recycling methods, however, can still be damaging to the environment due to the products they use and the emissions they create.
The latest method, which is detailed in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, offers a way to address such issues.
“This green and efficient strategy in neutral solution environment opens a new pathway to realise the large-scale pollution-free recycling of spent batteries,” the researchers wrote in the study, titled ‘A Green and Efficient Recycling Strategy for Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries in Neutral Solution Environment’.
