Full-sunlight-driven photocatalytic recovery of critical metals from spent lithium-ion batteries via organic acid leaching

The rapidly increasing deployment of secondary batteries has intensified pressures on resource security and waste management, exposing fundamental limitations of current battery recycling technologies that require intensive use of energy and chemicals. To enable sustainable battery waste management, systems must improve economic and environmental feasibility at the process level while retaining versatility toward diverse cathode chemistries. Here, we report a sunlight-driven photocatalytic leaching framework that enables robust recovery of critical metals from diverse commercial cathode materials. The process couples mild organic acids with a reusable photocatalyst to orchestrate a twofold leaching mechanism driven by sunlight, in which hydrogen peroxide is generated in situ across the solar spectrum and further activated by UV components to enhance metal extraction without external oxidizing agents. Importantly, the system maintains consistent performance over multiple operation cycles, supporting process robustness and scalability. Beyond its technical performance, techno-economic and life cycle analyses demonstrate clear advantages over conventional recycling methods, including lower energy inputs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. This work establishes a versatile, profitable, and environmentally benign approach to battery recycling, offering a scalable pathway toward a sustainable circular economy. Researchers developed a light-driven method using organic acids to recover critical metals from used lithium-ion batteries, offering a more sustainable route for battery recycling powered by natural sunlight.