Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) have become a staple in modern technology, powering everything from advanced gadgets to hybrid vehicles. Their appeal lies in their impressive energy density relative to weight, minimal memory effect, and the ability to undergo numerous charging and discharging cycles effectively. Currently, treatments for used LIBs are still in development, and efforts to optimize recycling methods and technologies are yet to be fully realized. The primary goal of this bibliometric analysis is to systematically examine the domain of LIB energy storage systems from 2011 to 2022, aiming to identify prevailing trends, recycling practices, and emerging directions of the LIB sector. Initially, a dataset of 1149 publications was retrieved from Web of Science, focusing on the top 100 most‐cited papers, which were comprehensively investigated through VOSviewer and CiteSpace software. The study offers additional value to the co‐authorship map, network analyses of keyword co‐occurrence network analysis, dissemination of articles across nations and journals, and impact of distinct research types. The findings reveal that the research output has steadily increased and peaked in 2022, with the leading global contributors being the People’s Republic of China (30%), the United States (26%), and Germany (10%). Emerging themes identified from the analysis include battery safety and thermal management, electrode material design and performance, as well as recycling and circular economy strategies. Recycling approaches, such as hydrometallurgy, can reduce the risk of heavy metal leaching from end‐of‐life (EoL) products, thereby effectively reducing toxicity. This study provides future directions for enhancing the effectiveness of LIB energy storage systems. It serves as a valuable reference point for identifying underexplored domains, guiding future innovations towards circular storage systems, and ultimately benefiting environmental sustainability, reliability, and adaptability.
Baskaran et al. (Thu,) studied this question.