Berkeley Lab Scientists Invent Material That Makes Recycling A Variety Of Batteries Easy And Economical
Lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized electronics and accelerated the shift to clean energy.These batteries have become an integral part of the 21st However, it is in danger of being depleted by 2050. Lithium, nickel, cobalt metals, and graphite, the key elements used in each battery, are increasingly scarce, expensive, and have little environmental or fair labor. Overseeing some of the remaining international supply chains.
It is imperative that we start reusing the materials we have already dug up and make the battery manufacturing process safer and fairer. A team of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab has invented a new award-winning battery material that ticks both boxes. The company’s product, called the Quick-Release Binder, separates the valuable materials in lithium-ion batteries from other components and makes them easy and affordable to recover for reuse in new batteries.
Gao Liu, project leader, senior scientist in energy technology at Berkeley Lab, and member of the Energy Storage Center at Berkeley Lab, said: “If we don’t stop burning and throwing things in the trash, we will run out of resources in the next decade. Otherwise, it will be impossible to keep up with the number of batteries demanded by the market. So it has to be recycled.”
Batteries made with the Quick-Release Binder can simply be unpacked, placed in room temperature alkaline water, and shaken gently. The separated elements are easily filtered from water and air dried.
This is in contrast to current lithium-ion recycling, which first shreds and pulverizes the batteries and then burns them to separate the metals from the other components. Recycling companies aim to make the process as efficient as possible, but due to past and current designs of most batteries, element recovery remains energy-intensive, costly and must be carefully managed. Releases toxic chemicals.
(Alkaline) just add water
Liu and his team at the Berkeley Lab Energy Storage Center created the quick-release binder while working on lithium-sulphur batteries, one of the potential alternatives to conventional lithium-ion in development. bottom. Lithium-sulfur batteries are a hot concept in the battery research and development world because they can be manufactured without using scarce cobalt and have a higher theoretical energy density than lithium-ion. However, there are many functional issues that must be resolved before batteries can be commercially adopted. The Quick-Release binder makes Li-S battery recycling easier and seems to solve one of the major performance issues. While the discovery is quite intriguing in itself, Chen Fang, a postdoctoral researcher in Liu’s lab, realized that the new binder material had even greater potential. That means it can also be used in today’s lithium-ion batteries.
A binder is a glue-like substance used in most types of batteries, including lithium-ion and alkaline batteries used in household products. A battery has two electrodes, a positively charged cathode and a negatively charged anode, made of conductive chemicals that produce an electric current and holds active ingredients in place for consistent and durable performance. There are structural materials to hold. Binders, as the name suggests, help bind these components together and maintain the structure of the battery.
The new Quick-Release Binder is made of two commercially available polymers, polyacrylic acid (PAA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI), with positively charged nitrogen atoms in PEI and negatively charged oxygen atoms in PAA. are connected by a bond betweenWhen the solid binder material is placed in alkaline water containing sodium hydroxide (Na)+Oh–), the sodium ion pops into the binding site and decomposes the two polymers. The separated polymer dissolves in the liquid, releasing the electrode components embedded inside.
This binder can be used to make anodes and cathodes and is about a tenth the price of the two most commonly used commercial binders. “[In our recent research] We’ve demonstrated that the whole process is very simple on a laboratory scale, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work the same way on an industrial scale,” said Fang. He added that the team believes the material could be used in batteries of all sizes, from small batteries in mobile phones to the extra-large batteries deployed to store backup his energy on the national power grid. I was.
In late September, the technology was recognized by the R&D 100 Awards as one of the top 100 innovative technologies developed globally in 2022.
The team is now working with battery recycling developer and OnTo Technologies founder Steve Sloop to complete testing and bring the product to market. Past experiments have demonstrated that the binder is very stable at high and low voltages, and we are currently using the binder to construct a prototype lithium-ion battery and comprehensively analyze its performance. , we plan to introduce its features.
If these tests go well, scientists foresee a smooth transition to commercial production. “There is no fundamental impediment to adapting current manufacturing processes to the use of binders, because it actually simplifies manufacturing for the same reasons that it simplifies recycling: water instead of harsh solvents. You can use it,” Chen said. To make a new battery, the manufacturer treats the binder with a chemical solvent to create a slurry containing all the electrode ingredients, which is then deposited onto the electrode sheet in the desired shape and thickness. “This means that current manufacturers must install additional equipment or facilities to protect workers from toxic solvent vapors and to manage the safe disposal of solvents.” Quick- Using the Release Binder eliminates these steps.
Redesigned battery lifecycle
According to Sloop, the quick-release binder represents a paradigm shift in battery design. Instead of designing a sophisticated battery and trying to create a recycling process after the fact, Liu’s team “designed for recycling” first.
“This binder has the great ability to be ‘thawed’ in a low-cost, environmentally friendly process, benefiting all of us by improving the economic and environmental sustainability of advanced battery systems. It brings us,” said Sloop. “The absence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the battery is also a big achievement. Very important, consumers don’t want them because of their new association with health issues, and I think regulators will soon agree that we can’t continue to use these chemicals. ”
Looking ahead, Liu and Sloop are discussing business deals with battery companies and binder manufacturers. They want to license their Quick-Release technology for use in all major lithium-ion brands. One day, the team’s inventions could be built into every battery under the roof or under the hood. This keeps the remaining rare earth metals under the ground.
Original: Rinse and Repeat: Here’s an Easy New Way to Recycle Batteries
Than: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
