Second life of recycled graphite for sustainable production of multilayer graphene related materials with multiple potential applications

Abstract

A sustainable route to obtain graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with highly competitive properties through the utilization of graphite recycled from spent vehicle's lithium-ion batteries is described. As compared with previous works, our precursor material is representative of a larger-scale recycling procedure, involves the processing of both cathodic and anodic materials, and concerns a larger number of batteries operated in diverse conditions. The morphology, chemical features, structure, and conductivity of the samples have been thoroughly investigated. Results obtained from complementary characterization techniques reveal the correct formation of GO and rGO samples from the recycled graphites. Electrical measurements show that the conductivity of our GO and rGO samples are very similar or even larger than those reported for samples obtained from high-purity natural graphite. These results indicate that our strategy is able to produce good-quality GOs and rGOs with potential applications in different fields, contributing to the circular economy and the recyclability of discarded wastes.