Cleaner separation and recovery of valuable metals from spent ternary cathode via carbon dioxide synergetic thermite reduction strategy

The low-carbon recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries has become crucial due to the increasing need to address resource shortages and environmental concerns. Herein, a low-carbon, facile, and efficient method was developed to separate and recover Li, Al, and transition metals from spent ternary cathodes. Initially, the cathode materials post-discharge and disassembly do not require pre-sorting. Instead of using carbonaceous materials, the Al foil in the cathode serves as the reducing agent during reduction roasting. The impact of different roasting atmospheres (air, N