Home» News» Our University’s Innovative Team of Porous Functional Materials and Energy Conversion Publishes Latest Research in Top Journal Nano-Micro Letters

Recently, the Innovative Team of Porous Functional Materials and Energy Conversion from the School of Materials Science and Engineering of our university has made new research progress in the recycling of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) batteries. The related research results have been published in Nano‑Micro Letters, a top journal in the field of materials, under the title “Bioinspired Injection Therapy for Spent LiFePO₄ Batteries: A Non‑Invasive Strategy for Capacity Regeneration and Longevity Enhancement”.

The first author of the paper is Associate Professor Wang Peng from the School of Materials Science and Engineering. The corresponding authors are Associate Professor Li Na from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Zhang Jialiang from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, PhD student Zhang Wei from University College London (UCL), and Associate Professor Shi Xiaodong from Hainan University.

Recently, our university’s research team has made new progress in the field of spent lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) battery recycling. The related achievements have been published in Nano-Micro Letters, a top journal in materials science, under the title “Bioinspired Injection Therapy for Spent LiFePO₄ Batteries: A Non-Invasive Strategy for Capacity Regeneration and Longevity Enhancement”.

The first author is Associate Professor Wang Peng from the School of Materials Science and Engineering. The corresponding authors include Associate Professor Li Na from our university, Professor Zhang Jialiang from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, PhD candidate Zhang Wei from University College London, and Associate Professor Shi Xiaodong from Hainan University.

Aiming at the problems of complex processes, high cost, and serious pollution in conventional spent LiFePO₄ battery recycling, this study innovatively proposes a non-invasive in-situ regeneration strategy. Without battery disassembly, the restoration reagent containing the I₃⁻/I⁻ redox couple is directly injected into spent pouch batteries. This approach not only activates dead lithium on the anode surface and optimizes the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer, but also effectively repairs the lattice structure and eliminates anti-site defects of LiFePO₄ by transporting recovered active lithium ions back to the cathode.

The regenerated LiFePO₄ batteries exhibit a capacity recovery of approximately 7% at 1C. After an additional 316 cycles at 1C, the capacity retention rate remains 85.9%. Moreover, pouch batteries with different degradation levels show a capacity recovery ratio of 3.38%–21.64% after injection. Economic and environmental assessments demonstrate that this strategy can achieve a profit of about $11.72 per kg of batteries, with nearly zero carbon emissions, which is far superior to traditional pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical recycling methods.

This work provides a new route for developing efficient and sustainable direct regeneration technology for lithium-ion batteries, with remarkable industrialization potential.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, and other projects.

Link：https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40820-026-02091-1