Electrochemical recovery of lithium-ion battery materials from molten salts by microstructural characterization using X-ray imaging

Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) guarantees the conserva-tion of important metal resources by reducing demands on raw sup-ply and offsetting the energy and environmental costs associated with its manufacture. Employing a molten salt as a solvent for extraction affords a much greener and simpler route to metal recov-ery by electrochemical means. The current mechanistic understand-ing of the electrochemical recovery of metals in molten salts needs to be improved for the process to be optimized. X-ray computed to-mography offers a non-destructive approach for 3D microstructure visualization and subsequent quantification. Here, we study the electrochemical deposition of recovered cobalt metal from lithium cobalt oxide, LiCoO2 in LiCl-KCl eutectic (LKE). This diagnostic approach has been applied to LiCoO2-LKE samples before and after electrolysis at 450 degrees C, yielding key insights into the morphological evolution of product formation.