As the consumption of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for the transportation and consumer electronic sectors continues to grow, so does the pile of battery waste, with no successful recycling model, as exists for the lead–acid battery. Here, we exhibit a method to recycle LIBs using deep eutectic solvents to extract valuable metals from various chemistries, including lithium cobalt (iii) oxide and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide. For the metal extraction from lithium cobalt (iii) oxide, leaching efficiencies of ≥90% were obtained for both cobalt and lithium. It was also found that other battery components, such as aluminium foil and polyvinylidene fluoride binder, can be recovered separately. Deep eutectic solvents could provide a green alternative to conventional methods of LIB recycling and reclaiming strategically important metals, which remain crucial to meet the demand of the exponentially increasing LIB production.

随着运输和消费电子行业锂离子电池（LIB）的消费持续增长，没有铅酸电池那样的成功的回收模式，一堆废电池也将增加。在这里，我们展示了一种使用深共熔溶剂回收LIB的方法，可从各种化学物质中提取有价值的金属，包括氧化锂钴（iii）和锂镍锰钴酸锂。用于从钴酸锂中提取金属（iii）氧化物，钴和锂的浸出效率均≥90％。还发现可以单独回收其他电池组件，例如铝箔和聚偏二氟乙烯粘合剂。低共熔溶剂可以为传统的LIB回收和战略上重要的金属回收方法提供绿色替代方法，而这对于满足指数级增长的LIB产量的需求仍然至关重要。