A Facile Segregation Process and Restoration of LiMn₂O₄ Cathode Material from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

Due to its three-dimensional tunnel structure, the spinel LiMn₂O₄ (LMO) cathode material is highly favourable for the migration of lithium ions. Thus, LMO has been used as a commercial cathode material for the electronic devices such as mobile phones and electric vehicles, owing to its special characteristics of low-cost, eco-friendly and non-toxic. However, the scarcity of lithium resources makes the system expensive. On the other hand, the tremendous and increasing usage of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) has undoubtedly generated a significant amount of spent LIBs, resulting in resource waste and environmental pollution. Therefore, in this work, we report on the recycling process of LMO from the spent LIBs and mainly devote to re-examine the electrochemical performances of the regenerated LMO cathode material, for the first time. It is noticed that, the renovated spinel LMO exhibits a better cycling stability up to 500 cycles, with the discharge capacity of 56 mAh g^-1 and retained almost 100% of its initial capacity cycled at 1.0 C.