Contact‐Electrocatalysis‐Electrocoagulation Strategy With Lithium‐Ion Battery Cathode

ABSTRACT The rapid expansion of the global electric vehicle industry renders sustainable management of spent lithium‐ion batteries a critical challenge. Current mainstream industrial strategies focus on cascade utilization and material purification recycling, whereas the direct and efficient utilization of spent battery materials remains challenging. Here, we propose a novel pathway for effectively utilizing lithium‐ion battery, which explores lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) cathode materials to implement a contact‐electrocatalysis‐electrocoagulation (CEC‐EC) strategy. The strategy achieves 99.7% degradation of organic dyes, exemplified by methyl orange, within 60 min through synergistic pollutant adsorption and hydrogen radical generation, thereby comparing favorably with most previously reported CEC systems. Moreover, CEC‐EC strategy enables defluoridation of wastewater from battery dismantling processes with mechanical energy merely. Concurrently, it enables high‐purity hydrogen production, with a peak production rate of up to 9×10 − 7 m 3 ·s − 1 . Repeated validation using industrially collected spent lithium‐ion battery powders further demonstrates that real‐world spent battery materials can be directly utilized to implement the CEC‐EC strategy, which is driven solely by mechanical energy without the need for external electricity. It simultaneously broadens radical generation pathways and the catalyst selection in CEC. Notably, this work enables an eco‐economic application of “treating waste with waste”.