Issue

Vol. 18 (2026)

Recycling of High-Purity Lithium Metal from Waste Battery by Photoelectrochemical Extraction at Ultralow Overall Potential

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01958-z
Longfei Yang
State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, International Joint Lab of Energy Electrochemistry of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People’s Republic of China
Chao Huang
State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, International Joint Lab of Energy Electrochemistry of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People’s Republic of China
Yanhong Lyu
State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, International Joint Lab of Energy Electrochemistry of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People’s Republic of China
Dawei Chen
State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, International Joint Lab of Energy Electrochemistry of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People’s Republic of China
Aibin Huang
State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, People’s Republic of China
Jianyun Zheng
State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, International Joint Lab of Energy Electrochemistry of the Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Jianyun Zheng

jyzheng@hnu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 18 (2026), Article Number: 117

Abstract

To ease the scarcity of lithium (Li) resource and cut down on environmental pollution, an efficient, selective, inexpensive and sustainable Li recycling process from waste batteries is needed, which is yet to be achieved. Here, we report a low-potential photoelectrochemical (PEC) system that selectively and efficiently extracts Li metals from multi-cation electrolytes under 1 sun illumination. Based on the difference of redox potential, we can get rid of the disturbance of other cations (i.e., Fe, Co and Ni ions) by a bias-free PEC device to realize the extraction of high-purity Li metals on a coplanar Si-based photocathode-TiO2 photoanode tandem device at 2 V of applied bias (far less than the redox potentials of Li+/Li). In such system, the extraction rate of Li metals (purity > 99.5%) exceeds 1.35 g h−1 m−2 with 90% of Faradaic efficiency. Long-term experiments, different electrode/electrolyte tests, and various price assessments further demonstrate the stability, compatibility and economy of PEC extraction system, enabling a solar-driven pathway for the recycling of critical metal resources.


Highlights:
1 A low-potential photoelectrochemical (PEC) system was designed and used to selectively and efficiently extracts Li metals from multi-cation electrolytes under 1 sun illumination.
2 A coplanar Si-based photocathode-TiO2 photoanode PEC device exhibited an acceptable extraction rate of ~1.38 g h−1 m−2, an excellent FE of 90.7% and a high production purity of 99.5%.
3 The designed PEC system also showed potential for purifying the waste electrolytes and recycling the other metals (i.e., Fe, Co, and Ni).

Keywords

Photoelectrochemical method Lithium metals Waste batteries Ultralow-potential device Selective and efficient extraction
Yang, Longfei, Chao Huang, Yanhong Lyu, Dawei Chen, Aibin Huang, and Jianyun Zheng. 2026. “Recycling of High-Purity Lithium Metal from Waste Battery by Photoelectrochemical Extraction at Ultralow Overall Potential”. Nano-Micro Letters 18 (January):117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-025-01958-z.
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