IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-47024-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Grave-to-cradle photothermal upcycling of waste polyesters over spent LiCoO2

Author

Listed:
  • Xiangxi Lou

    (Soochow University
    Harbin Engineering University)

  • Penglei Yan

    (Soochow University)

  • Binglei Jiao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Qingye Li

    (Soochow University)

  • Panpan Xu

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Lei Wang

    (Soochow University)

  • Liang Zhang

    (Soochow University)

  • Muhan Cao

    (Soochow University)

  • Guiling Wang

    (Harbin Engineering University)

  • Zheng Chen

    (University of California San Diego)

  • Qiao Zhang

    (Soochow University)

  • Jinxing Chen

    (Soochow University)

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and plastics are pivotal components of modern society; nevertheless, their escalating production poses formidable challenges to resource sustainability and ecosystem integrity. Here, we showcase the transformation of spent lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathodes into photothermal catalysts capable of catalyzing the upcycling of diverse waste polyesters into high-value monomers. The distinctive Li deficiency in spent LCO induces a contraction in the Co−O6 unit cell, boosting the monomer yield exceeding that of pristine LCO by a factor of 10.24. A comprehensive life-cycle assessment underscores the economic viability of utilizing spent LCO as a photothermal catalyst, yielding returns of 129.6 $·kgLCO−1, surpassing traditional battery recycling returns (13–17 $·kgLCO−1). Solar-driven recycling 100,000 tons of PET can reduce 3.459 × 1011 kJ of electric energy and decrease 38,716 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. This work unveils a sustainable solution for the management of spent LIBs and plastics.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiangxi Lou & Penglei Yan & Binglei Jiao & Qingye Li & Panpan Xu & Lei Wang & Liang Zhang & Muhan Cao & Guiling Wang & Zheng Chen & Qiao Zhang & Jinxing Chen, 2024. "Grave-to-cradle photothermal upcycling of waste polyesters over spent LiCoO2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47024-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47024-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47024-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-47024-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebecca E. Ciez & J. F. Whitacre, 2019. "Examining different recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(2), pages 148-156, February.
    2. Davide Castelvecchi, 2021. "Electric cars and batteries: how will the world produce enough?," Nature, Nature, vol. 596(7872), pages 336-339, August.
    3. Junxiong Wang & Kai Jia & Jun Ma & Zheng Liang & Zhaofeng Zhuang & Yun Zhao & Baohua Li & Guangmin Zhou & Hui-Ming Cheng, 2023. "Sustainable upcycling of spent LiCoO2 to an ultra-stable battery cathode at high voltage," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(7), pages 797-805, July.
    4. Shengbo Zhang & Qikun Hu & Yu-Xiao Zhang & Haoyue Guo & Yanfen Wu & Mingze Sun & Xingsong Zhu & Jiangang Zhang & Shuyan Gong & Ping Liu & Zhiqiang Niu, 2023. "Depolymerization of polyesters by a binuclear catalyst for plastic recycling," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(8), pages 965-973, August.
    5. Gavin Harper & Roberto Sommerville & Emma Kendrick & Laura Driscoll & Peter Slater & Rustam Stolkin & Allan Walton & Paul Christensen & Oliver Heidrich & Simon Lambert & Andrew Abbott & Karl Ryder & L, 2019. "Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles," Nature, Nature, vol. 575(7781), pages 75-86, November.
    6. Christian Bauer & Simon Burkhardt & Neil P. Dasgupta & Linda Ager-Wick Ellingsen & Linda L. Gaines & Han Hao & Roland Hischier & Liangbing Hu & Yunhui Huang & Jürgen Janek & Chengdu Liang & Hong Li & , 2022. "Charging sustainable batteries," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(3), pages 176-178, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaoyan Qiu & Jize Liu & Xinkai Li & Yuyan Wang & Xinxing Zhang, 2024. "Click dechlorination of halogen-containing hazardous plastics towards recyclable vitrimers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gutsch, Moritz & Leker, Jens, 2024. "Costs, carbon footprint, and environmental impacts of lithium-ion batteries – From cathode active material synthesis to cell manufacturing and recycling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PB).
    2. Baolong Qiu & Mengjie Liu & Xin Qu & Fengying Zhou & Hongwei Xie & Dihua Wang & Lawrence Yoon Suk Lee & Huayi Yin, 2024. "Waste plastics upcycled for high-efficiency H2O2 production and lithium recovery via Ni-Co/carbon nanotubes composites," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Guanjun Ji & Di Tang & Junxiong Wang & Zheng Liang & Haocheng Ji & Jun Ma & Zhaofeng Zhuang & Song Liu & Guangmin Zhou & Hui-Ming Cheng, 2024. "Sustainable upcycling of mixed spent cathodes to a high-voltage polyanionic cathode material," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Wang, Mengmeng & Liu, Kang & Dutta, Shanta & Alessi, Daniel S. & Rinklebe, Jörg & Ok, Yong Sik & Tsang, Daniel C.W., 2022. "Recycling of lithium iron phosphate batteries: Status, technologies, challenges, and prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    5. Nguyen-Tien, Viet & Dai, Qiang & Harper, Gavin D.J. & Anderson, Paul A. & Elliott, Robert J.R., 2022. "Optimising the geospatial configuration of a future lithium ion battery recycling industry in the transition to electric vehicles and a circular economy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    6. Jun Ma & Junxiong Wang & Kai Jia & Zheng Liang & Guanjun Ji & Haocheng Ji & Yanfei Zhu & Wen Chen & Hui-Ming Cheng & Guangmin Zhou, 2024. "Subtractive transformation of cathode materials in spent Li-ion batteries to a low-cobalt 5 V-class cathode material," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Jay N. Meegoda & Sarvagna Malladi & Isabel C. Zayas, 2022. "End-of-Life Management of Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries in the United States," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-13, November.
    8. Shengyu Tao & Haizhou Liu & Chongbo Sun & Haocheng Ji & Guanjun Ji & Zhiyuan Han & Runhua Gao & Jun Ma & Ruifei Ma & Yuou Chen & Shiyi Fu & Yu Wang & Yaojie Sun & Yu Rong & Xuan Zhang & Guangmin Zhou , 2023. "Collaborative and privacy-preserving retired battery sorting for profitable direct recycling via federated machine learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Guanjun Ji & Junxiong Wang & Zheng Liang & Kai Jia & Jun Ma & Zhaofeng Zhuang & Guangmin Zhou & Hui-Ming Cheng, 2023. "Direct regeneration of degraded lithium-ion battery cathodes with a multifunctional organic lithium salt," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Diana Roa & Knut Einar Rosendahl, 2023. "Policies for Material Circularity: the Case of Lithium," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 373-405, March.
    11. Mohammad Ali Rajaeifar & Marco Raugei & Bernhard Steubing & Anthony Hartwell & Paul A. Anderson & Oliver Heidrich, 2021. "Life cycle assessment of lithium‐ion battery recycling using pyrometallurgical technologies," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(6), pages 1560-1571, December.
    12. Ali, Hayder & Khan, Hassan Abbas & Pecht, Michael, 2022. "Preprocessing of spent lithium-ion batteries for recycling: Need, methods, and trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    13. Jessica Dunn & Kabian Ritter & Jesús M. Velázquez & Alissa Kendall, 2023. "Should high‐cobalt EV batteries be repurposed? Using LCA to assess the impact of technological innovation on the waste hierarchy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(5), pages 1277-1290, October.
    14. Hao Hao & Wenxian Xu & Fangfang Wei & Chuanliang Wu & Zhaoran Xu, 2022. "Reward–Penalty vs. Deposit–Refund: Government Incentive Mechanisms for EV Battery Recycling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-18, September.
    15. Zhen Yu & Yang Li & Yaoxin Zhang & Ping Xu & Chade Lv & Wulong Li & Bushra Maryam & Xianhua Liu & Swee Ching Tan, 2024. "Microplastic detection and remediation through efficient interfacial solar evaporation for immaculate water production," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Desreveaux, A. & Bouscayrol, A. & Trigui, R. & Hittinger, E. & Castex, E. & Sirbu, G.M., 2023. "Accurate energy consumption for comparison of climate change impact of thermal and electric vehicles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    17. Marit Mohr & Jens F. Peters & Manuel Baumann & Marcel Weil, 2020. "Toward a cell‐chemistry specific life cycle assessment of lithium‐ion battery recycling processes," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(6), pages 1310-1322, December.
    18. Guido Busca, 2024. "Critical Aspects of Energetic Transition Technologies and the Roles of Materials Chemistry and Engineering," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-32, July.
    19. Cagli, Efe Caglar, 2023. "The volatility spillover between battery metals and future mobility stocks: Evidence from the time-varying frequency connectedness approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    20. Gu, Xubo & Bai, Hanyu & Cui, Xiaofan & Zhu, Juner & Zhuang, Weichao & Li, Zhaojian & Hu, Xiaosong & Song, Ziyou, 2024. "Challenges and opportunities for second-life batteries: Key technologies and economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47024-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.