Speaker
Description
Electric vehicles (EVs) are on the rise and with it, the expected number of scrap or end-of-life batteries. Since battery production from raw materials is energy-intensive and environmentally burdensome, it is economically beneficial to recycle batteries than to dispose them. However, the diverse range of cathode materials makes the recycling process complex, as the purity standards are typically not met. In this work, we have performed a detailed microstructural analysis near-atomic scale of recycled Cu from EV battery current collectors. We observe oxygen segregation at the grain boundaries and the presence of nano-sized BCT precipitates enriched in Fe, Co and Ni distributed in a Cu matrix. The presence of these precipitates decrease the conductivity of Cu, nevertheless, the dirty Cu reveals a similar cyclic performance as a standard current collector. Our findings provide insights on the influence of impurities during recycling and informs the optimization of the current battery recycling practices towards a circular economy.
