Groupe du prof. Dollé
Titre: Sustainable regeneration of graphite from Li-ion battery waste and integration in the circular economy
Résumé: Spent lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are a key source of raw materials, which are essential for LIB manufacturing in the circular economy. Whereas recycling of cathode materials from spent LIB is currently reported widely in academia and industrial laboratories, anode active materials, specifically graphite, are usually discarded due to their low added value and rigorous separation steps. This project aims to address the purification challenges in LIB graphite recycling. There are two main directions needed to achieve this goal.
Firstly, since the composition of industrial spent graphite is heterogeneous and complex, a robust characterisation procedure is essential for developing a one-size-fits-all graphite regeneration procedure. Secondly, it is essential to regenerate a more sustainable, high quality (with respect to impurities and defects) graphite for battery applications while using less energy-consuming treatments. For example, most graphite is currently pyrolyzed at high temperature (> 3000°C). The regenerated graphite will be used for LIB manufacturing, thus contributing to the circular economy.
