Research Progress on Recycling Technology of Spent Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes: From the Perspective of Physical Separation and Intelligent Recognition

Abstract

Against the global drive for energy conservation and emission reduction, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have witnessed increasingly widespread adoption across diverse sectors, thereby generating an urgent imperative for the efficient recycling of electrodes from spent LIBs. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent research progress in this domain. It begins by elucidating the fundamental architecture of LIBs and the key physicochemical characteristics of their electrode materials, followed by a critical analysis of the major technical bottlenecks inherent in current recycling processes. While conventional separation techniques are briefly discussed, the primary emphasis is placed on reviewing deep learning-based visual inspection systems, with particular attention to YOLOv8-based approaches reported in the literature. Finally, future development trajectories are delineated, and pivotal research directions including the optimization of multi-technology integration and the expansion of training dataset scale and diversity are proposed to facilitate the large-scale, standardized industrial implementation of electrode recycling technologies.