Upcycling end of lithium cobalt oxide batteries to electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction reaction in direct methanol fuel cell via sustainable approach

作     者：Keyru Serbara Bejigo Kousik Bhunia Jungho Kim Chaehyeon Lee Seoin Back Sang-Jae Kim Keyru Serbara Bejigo;Kousik Bhunia;Jungho Kim;Chaehyeon Lee;Seoin Back;Sang-Jae Kim

作者机构：Nanomaterials&System LabMajor of Mechatronics EngineeringFaculty of Applied Energy SystemJeju National UniversityJeju 63243Republic of Korea Nanomaterials&System LabMajor of Mechanical System EngineeringCollege of EngineeringJeju National UniversityJeju 63243Republic of Korea Research Institute of New Energy Industry(RINEI)Jeju National UniversityJeju 63243Republic of Korea Department of Chemical and Biomolecular EngineeringInstitute of Emergent MaterialsSogang UniversitySeoul 04107Republic of Korea 

出 版 物：《Journal of Energy Chemistry》 (能源化学（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2023年第82卷第7期

页      面：148-157,I0004页

核心收录：

学科分类：0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 0808[工学-电气工程] 0809[工学-电子科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 08[工学] 0805[工学-材料科学与工程（可授工学、理学学位）] 080502[工学-材料学] 0703[理学-化学] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) the South Korea grant funded by the Korean government(MSIT)(2021R1A4A2000934,2023R1A2C3004336) The computational part of the work was supported by Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering,Institute of Emergent Materials,Sogang University,via NRF Korea grant 2015M3D3A1A01064929 a generous supercomputing time from KISTI。 

主　　题：Density functional theory(DFT) Direct methanol fuel cell Leaching Nitrogen doping Oxygen reduction reaction Recycling Spent lithium-ion batteries 

摘      要：Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries(SLIBs)has become essential to preserve the environment and reclaim vital resources for sustainable development.The typical SLIBs recycling concentrated on separating valuable components had limitations,including high energy consumption and complicated separation processes.This work suggests a safe hydrometallurgical process to recover usable metallic cobalt from depleted LiCoO_(2)batteries by utilizing citric acid as leachant and hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizing agent,with ethanol as a selective precipitating agent.The anode graphite was also recovered and converted to graphene oxide(GO).The above components were directly resynthesized to cobaltintegrated nitrogen-doped graphene(Co@NG).The Co@NG showed a decent activity towards oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)with a half-wave potential of 0.880 V vs.RHE,almost similar to Pt/C(0.888 V vs.RHE)and with an onset potential of 0.92 V vs.RHE.The metal-nitrogen-carbon(Co-N-C)having the highest nitrogen content has decreased the barrier for ORR since the reaction was enhanced for Co@NG-800,as confirmed by density functional theory(DFT)simulations.The Co@NG cathode catalyst coupled with commercial Pt-Ru/C as anode catalyst exhibits excellent performance for direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC)with a peak power density of 34.7 mW cm^(-2)at a discharge current density of120 m A cm^(-2)and decent stability,indicating the promising utilization of spent battery materials in DMFC applications.Besides,lithium was recovered from supernatant as lithium carbonate by coprecipitation process.This work avoids sophisticated elemental separation by utilizing SLIBs for other renewable energy applications,lowering the environmental concerns associated with recycling.