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Renewed graphite for high-performance lithium-ion batteries: catalytic graphitization approach

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Abstract

The widespread utilization of lithium-ion batteries has led to an increase in the quantity of decommissioned lithium-ion batteries. By incorporating recycled anode graphite into new lithium-ion batteries, we can effectively mitigate environmental pollution and meet the industry’s high demand for graphite. Herein, a suitable amount of ferric chloride hexahydrate was employed as a catalyst precursor to facilitate the low-temperature graphitization process of spent graphite. This resulted in renewed graphite with abundant pores, a high degree of graphitization (89.5%), and exceptional electrochemical properties. This material exhibits minimal polarization and impedance while maintaining a specific capacity of 376 mAh/g after 260 cycles at a rate of 0.5 C. While highlighting the remarkable attributes of recycled graphite, we also address the limitations associated with the catalytic graphitization method to provide researchers with comprehensive and unbiased insights. Ultimately, we believe that this method will play a pivotal role in recycling spent graphite with severely damaged structure.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Science and technology innovation plan of Hunan Province (No.2022RC1086), the Youth Foundation of Hunan Province (2021JJ40762), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2021JJ30794), Excellent youth funding of Hunan Provincial Education Department (Grant No. 22B0677). The authors would like to thank Ms. Luyu Zhang from Shiyanjia Lab (www.shiyanjia.com) for the XPS test.

Funding

This work is supported by the Science and technology innovation plan of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2022RC1086), the Youth Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2021JJ40762), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (Grant No. 2021JJ30794), Excellent youth funding of Hunan Provincial Education Department (Grant No. 22B0677).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410000, Hunan, China

    Zhengyi Li & Jian Li

  2. Hunan Zhengyuan Institute for Energy Storage Materials and Devices, Changsha, 410083, Hunan, China

    Jian Li

  3. College of Mechanical Engineering, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414006, Hunan, China

    Lihua Wang

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Zhengyi Li: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing—original draft. Jian Li: supervision, writing—review & editing. Lihua Wang: investigation, writing—review & editing.

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Li, Z., Li, J. & Wang, L. Renewed graphite for high-performance lithium-ion batteries: catalytic graphitization approach. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 599 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12370-5

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