Degradation of cathode in air and its influences on direct recycling

Delamination has been widely used in direct recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) as the first step to harvest cathode materials from cathodes. The variations of the recycling performance have been documented in many studies. The main mechanism of delamination is the inactivation of bonding forces provided by the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) binder. It is believed that the storage environment (air exposure time) will affect the performances of delamination to some extent. Three representative methods (direct calcination, pressure washing, and NMP solvent extraction) for delamination were studied to elucidate the effect of air exposure time on delamination efficiency. The peel-off efficiency (98-99%) of the direct calcination method was barely influenced by air exposure time. The pressure washing system or NMP solvent extraction method also exhibited high peel-off efficiency using samples after a long air exposure time (1 month), however these methods may have problems regarding Al contamination, i.e., 11.5 mg/g of pressure washing system and 134.4 mg/g of NMP solvent extraction. Results suggest that enhanced adhesion (0.11 MPa/month) could be a potential reason why air contact time affects delamination, with O-2 and/or H2O acting as contributors. This finding may help to maximum performance of delamination, as it highlights the importance of storage conditions of the spent LIBs prior to direct recycling.