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  • Perspective
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Recycling of sodium-ion batteries

Nature Reviews Materials volume 8, pages 623–634 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are promising electrical power sources complementary to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and could be crucial in future electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Spent LIBs and SIBs both face many of the same environmental and economic challenges in their recycling, but SIB recycling has a much higher economic barrier. Although LIB recycling can be profitable by recovering high-valued metals of lithium and cobalt, the lower material valuation of spent SIBs diminishes profitability and may hinder industrial recycling. Pre-emptive strategies to facilitate recycling spent SIBs should be made during the early commercialization stage to ensure that SIBs are designed for ease of recycling, low operation costs and optimum efficiency. This Perspective article summarizes the material components of SIBs, discusses strategies for their recycling and outlines the associated challenges and future outlook of SIB recycling. The insights presented should aid scientists and engineers in creating a circular economy for the SIB industry.

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Fig. 1: Trends in batteries.
Fig. 2: Percentages of components and materials in SIBs.
Fig. 3: Materials utilized in SIBs and LIBs.
Fig. 4: Battery production, scrap generation and recycling spent batteries or scraps.
Fig. 5: State-of-the-art battery recycling issues.
Fig. 6: Prospective SIB recycling technologies and ideal outcome.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2020B090919003), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos 52261160384 and 52072208), Fundamental Research Project of Shenzhen (No. JCYJ20220818101004009), Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guandong Pearl River Talents Program (No. 2017BT01N111), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2022A1515110531) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2022M721800).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Research, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China

    Yun Zhao, Yuqiong Kang, Jian Lu, Hao Du, Chenglei Li, Feiyu Kang & Baohua Li

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    John Wozny & Tao Li

  3. Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Naser Tavajohi

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Contributions

Y.Z. and B.L. planned and supervised this project. Y.Z., J.W., T.L., N.T. and Y.K. collected and discussed recycling related data. Y.Z., J.L., H.D., C.L. and Y.K. discussed practical sodium-ion battery technology and their possible recycling strategies. Y.Z., Y.K., J.W., N.T., F.K. and B.L. summarized battery recycling strategies, challenges and future perspectives. Y.Z. wrote and edited the manuscript with N.T., J.W. and B.L. All authors approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Baohua Li.

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Nature Reviews Materials thanks Renjie Chen and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Zhao, Y., Kang, Y., Wozny, J. et al. Recycling of sodium-ion batteries. Nat Rev Mater 8, 623–634 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00574-w

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