Carbothermal regeneration of LiFePO4/C cathode material by recycling the precursors from out-of-line LiFePO4 cells

In this work, the LiFePO 4 /C (LFP/C) cathode material was regenerated by carbothermal processing using Li 2 CO 3 , Li 3 PO 4 , and FePO 4 precursors recycled from out-of-line (substandard) LFP cells. The separated black mass was converted into the various metal precursors, Li 2 CO 3 , Li 3 PO 4 , and FePO 4 . The LFP/C powders were then regenerated by the carbothermal reaction between the metal precursors in various molar ratios of lithium precursor to FePO 4 (1:1, 1.05:1, and 1.10:1) and sucrose as a carbon source. The LFP/C powders regenerated from Li 2 CO 3 and FePO 4 precursors at a molar ratio of 1:1 exhibited long-term cycling performance, with 90% capacity retention after 2,000 charge/discharge cycles at a current density of 20C.