Researchers recovered lithium from batteries on a small scale by using mechanical force
Grinding up old batteries might lead to a low-energy way to recycle the lithium and other metals used in them. Lithum-ion batteries are in all our personal technology — such as phones, laptops and wireless headphones — and they power electric vehicles. Without them, our lives would look very different. The lithium in rechargeable batteries is currently recycled by either heating them to high temperatures or treating them with concentrated acids and organic solvents. Estimates for how much lithium is recycled vary, but calculations by lithium-battery consultant Hans Eric Melin suggest that perhaps 15% of the metal in batteries is recovered. Oleksandr Dolotko, a materials scientist at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, and his colleagues used mechanochemistry — the initiation of a chemical reaction by mechanical force from grinding or milling — to recover lithium from lithium-ion batteries. Such batteries contain lithium compounds and other metals, such as cobalt or nickel. Although the supply of these metals is not critically running low, recycling them is becoming more important because battery-powered devices are becoming more prevalent as part of the transition away from fossil-fuel energy. The European Union has set a target of 80% lithium recovery for all batteries by 2031. Dolotko's team…