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Research Article | Open Access

Reconstruction of lithium replenishment channel with an amorphous structure for efficient regeneration of spent LiCoO2 cathodes

Yang Cao1,2, Junfeng Li1, Haotian Qu1, Haocheng Ji1, Lingshu Li2, Xijun Wei2(), Guangmin Zhou1()
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China
School of Materials and Chemistry, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, China
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Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries with LiCoO2 (LCO) cathodes are widely used in various electronic devices, resulting in a large amount of spent LCO (SLCO). Therefore, there is an urgent need for an efficient technique for recycling SLCO. However, due to the presence of cobalt oxide with a spinel phase on the surface of highly-degraded LCO, the strong electrostatic repulsion from the transition metal octahedron poses a high Li replenishment barrier, making the regeneration of highly-degraded LCO a challenge. Herein, we propose a structural transformation strategy for reconstructing Li replenishment channels to aid the direct regeneration of highly-degraded LCO. In this approach, ball milling is employed to disrupt the inherent structure of highly-degraded LCO, thereby releasing the internal stress and converting the surface spinel phase into a homogeneous amorphous structure, which promotes Li insertion and regeneration. The regenerated LCO (RLCO) exhibits an outstanding discharge capacity of 179.10 mAh·g−1 in the voltage range of 3.0–4.5 V at 0.5 C. The proposed strategy is an effective regeneration approach for highly-degraded LCO, thereby facilitating the efficient recycling of spent lithium-ion battery cathode materials.

Keywords

lithium-ion battery (LIB)amorphous structureball millingregeneration

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Energy Materials and Devices
Volume 3 Issue 1,
March 2025
Article number: 9370059
DOI: 10.26599/EMD.2025.9370059
Cite this article:
Cao Y, Li J, Qu H, et al. Reconstruction of lithium replenishment channel with an amorphous structure for efficient regeneration of spent LiCoO2 cathodes. Energy Materials and Devices, 2025, 3(1): 9370059. https://doi.org/10.26599/EMD.2025.9370059
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