Amino acid assists in recycling rechargeable batteries

A new strategy for recycling spent lithium-ion batteries is based on a hydrometallurgical process in neutral solution. This allows for the extraction of lithium and other valuable metals in an environmentally friendly, highly efficient, and inexpensive way, as a Chinese research team reports in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The leaching efficiency is improved by a solid-solid reduction mechanism, known as the battery effect, as well as the addition of the amino acid glycine.