Facile Fabrication of High-Performance Li-Ion Battery Carbonaceous Anode from Li-Ion Battery Waste

Abstract

With the massive application of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in portable devices and electric vehicles, supplying active materials with high performances and then recycling their waste are two core issues for the development of LIBs. Herein, a novel strategy is proposed to recycle spent LIB (SLIB) graphite and reform it as a valuable anode material for LIBs. SLIB graphite has been carbon-coated using glucose (OSG@C). We systematically investigated the effects of coating amount, carbonization temperature, and carbonization time on the performance of OSG@C. As an anode for LIBs, the reconstructed graphite exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance. The reconstructed graphite can deliver a high capacity of 424.7 mAh g−1 over 270 cycles at 1C, and also displayed an outstanding rate capability (a capacity of 212.8 mAh g−1 is achieved at 5C). The improvement is attributed to the carbon-coated layer with a large interlayer spacing and abundant micropores, which speeds up the transport of Li+. The findings demonstrate the great potential of the SLIB graphite to be reused as high-performance anode for LIBs via a simple treatment.