Acid-free photocatalytic recovery of valuable metals from spent ternary lithium battery cathode materials using acetonitrile and dichloromethane.

The environmentally friendly leaching technology is the core direction to recover valuable metals from spent lithium batteries (LIBs). A new photocatalytic activation combined with organic solvent leaching is developed. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the leaching efficiencies for Li, Mn, and Co are 72.43%, 92.52% and 97.93%, respectively.