Toward Next Generation Lithium‐Ion Battery Recycling: From Metal Extraction to In Situ Cell Repair

ABSTRACT The rapid growth of electric vehicles has accelerated the accumulation of spent lithium‐ion batteries, creating an urgent need for recycling strategies that reduce energy consumption, minimize secondary waste, and retain material value. Conventional pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes remain important industrial routes, but their focus on metal extraction often fails to preserve the functional value embedded in spent batteries. In contrast, materials regeneration restores degraded electrode materials through relithiation and structural reconstruction, offering a more precise route for recovering material functionality, although its application is still constrained by feedstock heterogeneity and inconsistent performance. More recently, advances in nondestructive characterization and intelligent evaluation have enabled in situ cell repair, which diagnoses degradation and restores battery function with minimal disassembly. These developments reveal a clear evolution of spent battery recycling, from bulk metal recovery to functional materials restoration and ultimately to cell‐level repair. Accordingly, this review proposes a three‐stage framework covering conventional metal extraction, materials regeneration, and nondestructive in situ cell repair. More importantly, it presents battery recycling as an evolving pathway from bulk treatment to diagnosis guided repair and establishes an intelligent recycling framework linking battery analysis, classification, route selection, regeneration, and in situ repair to support next generation battery circularity.