Electrochemical Recycling of Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes for Scalable and Sustainable Metal Recovery

Abstract

The accelerating accumulation of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) poses both a promising resource opportunity and a pressing recycling challenge. While pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical recycling routes are technologically mature, they are energy- and reagent-intensive, generate secondary pollution, and fail to preserve cathode structures for direct reuse. In contrast, electrochemical recycling is emerging as a transformative alternative, leveraging electricity as a clean and tunable “reagent” to enable indirect recycling via metal dissolution and selective recovery, and direct regeneration via relithiation under mild conditions. This approach offers high efficiency in recovery and short technology chain while significantly reducing chemical consumption and waste generation. However, its industrial deployment remains in early stages due to stability and scalability challenges. This work systematically evaluates key electrochemical strategies: electrochemical leaching, direct electrodeposition, selective ion separation, direct electrochemical relithiation, and molten-salt electrochemical strategies. Beyond summarizing recent advances, we critically examine how interfacial design, including slurry-electrode interactions, side-reactions, mediator and membrane stability, affects efficiency, selectivity, and durability, as well as reactor design for the scale-up production. We also assess techno-economic feasibility and scale-up bottlenecks, and outline a forward-looking roadmap integrating operando characterization, interfacial design, and continuous-flow reactors to advance low-carbon, scalable electrochemical recycling for a circular LIB supply chain.