As the world moves towards a cleaner energy future, the importance of recycling ‘dead’ batteries cannot be overstated. With the growing demand for electric vehicles, portable electronics, and renewable energy storage, lithium has become a critical mineral. According to new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU), tapping into used batteries as a secondary source of lithium not only helps reduce environmental impact but also secures access to this valuable resource, supporting a circular economy and ensuring long-term sustainability in the energy sector.

The global lithium-ion battery market size is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 13 per cent, reaching $87.5 billion by 2027. However, only around 20 per cent of a lithium-ion battery’s capacity is used before the battery is no longer fit for use in electric vehicles, meaning those batteries ending up in storage or on the landfill retain nearly 80 per cent of their lithium capacity.

The Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources has estimated that by 2035, Australia could be generating 137,000 t of lithium battery waste annually. For the end-of-life batteries, the obvious answer is recycling, said first author Mr Asad Ali, quoting figures from the government which estimates that the recycling industry could be worth between $603 million and $3.1 billion annually in just over a decade.

“By recycling these batteries, you can access not only the remaining lithium – which already purified to near 99 per cent – but you can also retrieve the nickel and the cobalt from these batteries,” Mr Ali noted.

While the lithium retrieved through the recycling process is unlikely to impact the lithium extraction or downstream sectors, the recycling process offered significant environmental benefits when compared with the mining industry. Recycling processes can significantly reduce the extensive use of land, soil contamination, ecological footprint, water footprint, carbon footprint, and harmful chemical release into the environment.

Mining emits up to 37% tons of CO2 per ton of lithium. Recycling processes produce up to 61 per cent less carbon emissions compared with mining and uses 83 per cent less energy and 79 per cent less water as compared to mining.

ECU lecturer and corresponding author Dr Muhammad Azhar said that while Australia holds one of the largest hard rock lithium reserves in the world, the recovery of lithium from end-of-life batteries could provide socio-economic benefits and fulfils environmental sustainability.

The benefits of lithium-ion battery recycling seem obvious, but there are still some challenges to be addressed. The rate of innovation significantly outstrips policy development, and the chemical make-up of the batteries also continuously evolve, which makes the recycling of these batteries more complicated.

However, there is a definite need for investment into the right infrastructure in order to create this circular economy. Several Australian companies are looking at the best ways to approach this, and ECU is exploring the second life of retired lithium batteries, providing a promising future for a greener tomorrow.

In a groundbreaking breakthrough, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have successfully employed artificial intelligence to identify five powerful new materials that could potentially replace traditional lithium-ion batteries. These innovative discoveries were made possible through the application of generative AI techniques to rapidly explore thousands of material combinations.

Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, which rely on lithium ions carrying a single positive charge, multivalent-ion batteries use elements such as magnesium, calcium, aluminum, and zinc whose ions carry two or even three positive charges. This unique property allows multivalent-ion batteries to potentially store significantly more energy, making them highly attractive for future energy storage solutions.

However, the greater size and electrical charge of multivalent ions make it challenging to accommodate them efficiently in battery materials – a hurdle that the NJIT team’s new AI-driven research directly addresses. “One of the biggest hurdles wasn’t a lack of promising battery chemistries – it was the sheer impossibility of testing millions of material combinations,” said Professor Dibakar Datta, leading researcher on the project.

To overcome this obstacle, the NJIT team developed a novel dual-AI approach: a Crystal Diffusion Variational Autoencoder (CDVAE) and a finely tuned Large Language Model (LLM). These AI tools rapidly explored thousands of new crystal structures, something previously impossible using traditional laboratory experiments.

The CDVAE model was trained on vast datasets of known crystal structures, enabling it to propose completely novel materials with diverse structural possibilities. Meanwhile, the LLM was tuned to zero in on materials closest to thermodynamic stability, crucial for practical synthesis. “Our AI tools dramatically accelerated the discovery process, which uncovered five entirely new porous transition metal oxide structures that show remarkable promise,” said Datta.

The team validated their AI-generated structures using quantum mechanical simulations and stability tests, confirming that the materials could indeed be synthesized experimentally and hold great potential for real-world applications. Datta emphasized the broader implications of their AI-driven approach: “This is more than just discovering new battery materials – it’s about establishing a rapid, scalable method to explore any advanced materials, from electronics to clean energy solutions, without extensive trial and error.”

With these encouraging results, Datta and his colleagues plan to collaborate with experimental labs to synthesize and test their AI-designed materials, pushing the boundaries further towards commercially viable multivalent-ion batteries. This exciting breakthrough has the potential to revolutionize the field of energy storage, paving the way for a more sustainable future.

The mysteries hidden within your battery are finally being unraveled by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Led by Professor Yingjie Zhang, a team has completed an investigation into the nonuniformity of liquid electrolytes at solid-liquid interfaces in electrochemical cells – a long-overlooked aspect that holds significant technological implications.

The researchers used 3D atomic force microscopy to study the molecular structure of electrical double layers (EDLs), which self-organize into nanometer-thick layers at the interface between the liquid electrolyte and solid conductor. Their findings revealed three primary responses in EDLs: bending, breaking, and reconnecting – patterns that are quite universal and mainly driven by the finite size of liquid molecules.

The study provides a groundbreaking understanding of electrochemical cells and has significant implications for battery technology. By shedding light on the nonuniformity of liquid electrolytes at solid-liquid interfaces, researchers can now develop new chapters in electrochemistry textbooks and inform technological applications.

“We have resolved the EDLs in realistic, heterogeneous electrochemical systems, which is a holy grain in electrochemistry,” said Professor Zhang. “Besides the practical implications in technology, we are starting to develop new chapters in electrochemistry textbooks.”

The research team also includes graduate student Qian Ai as the lead author and other contributors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Support was provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

This study marks a significant step forward in understanding the atomic-scale secrets within batteries, paving the way for improved battery technology and innovative applications.