Facile room-temperature synthesis of electrocatalyst using the negative
electrode of spent Li-ion batteries

A study conducted by Hiroshi Itahara et al. was published in the Green Chemistry.

The development of recycling or repurposing technologies for the materials used in the spent Li-ion batteries is important in perspective of effective use of the resources. The conventional process mainly targets the positive electrode; however, the process has shortcomings. The extraction process of useful metals from the positive electrode, for instance, consumes the negative electrode as energy resources and reducing agent thereby raising environmental concerns from perspective of exhausting CO₂ and toxic compounds originated from Li, F and P contained in the negative electrode.
In the current paper, we showed the evidence that the copper-based compounds supported graphite powder is producible at room temperature where the existence of Li and P in the negative electrode induces its formation and demonstrated that the synthesized powder shows catalytic activity on the electrochemical CO₂ reduction to obtain useful products such as ethylene. The developed synthetic method would open an environmentally benign route to the synthesis of various electrocatalysts.

Title: Facile Synthesis of Electrocatalytically Active Cu/Graphite Using the Negative Electrode of Spent Li-ion Batteries
Authors: Itahara, H., Sakamoto, N., Takahashi, N., Kosaka, S., Takatani, Y.
Journal Name: Green Chemistry
Published: January 11, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1039/D3GC04472F