Tailoring Rheological and Functional Properties of Nickel‐Mangan‐Cobalt‐Based Recyclate Cathodes from Direct Recycling of Lithium‐Ion Battery Production Scrap

The growing demand for lithium‐ion batteries raises concerns about environmental impacts and supply chain reliability. Direct recycling of electrode production scrap offers a promising strategy to address these challenges. However, interdependencies among the recycling process, recyclate slurry rheology, and cell performance remain not fully understood. In this study, two different strategies to reintroduce recycled coating into the production process (blending and supplementing additives) are investigated and to tailor rheological and functional properties of the recyclate slurries and electrodes to match with pristine material. To deepen the understanding, the microstructural evolution of the electrodes is analyzed and correlated with different slurry formulations and the electrodes conductivities as well as capacity and rate capability. Adding binder plus conductive additive (in sum: 1.5 wt%), as well as blending with 90% fresh slurry, leads to rheological, microstructural, and functional properties comparable to pristine material. These results help in understanding the interdependencies arising from the recycling process and highlight two promising options to improve recyclate containing electrodes. At the same time, they reveal remaining challenges, such as limiting the deagglomeration of conductive additives and cracking of active material in the recyclate induced by calendaring, which must be addressed to enable higher shares of recyclate.