A high-performance energy storage system from sphagnum uptake waste LIBs with negative greenhouse-gas emission

The ever-growing energy market demands a million tons yield of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) which contributes to the climate change via huge greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, yet the depleting cathode resources pursuit sustainable production routes. Recycling of the spent LIBs is crucial. Current LIBs recycling utilizes complex process and consumes huge amount of energy. The key question is how to balance the GHG emission and the overall performance of the recycled cathodes. Many techniques have been tried to address the issue, but the GHG-performance dilemma remains to be overcome. Here we provide a route of sphagnum uptake of spent LIBs cathode toward high performance lithium sulfur (Li–S) battery, which may settle the infeasibility of ternary cathode recycling via industrial applicable processes. As-prepared cathode benefits from both chemical stabilization and hierarchical structural encapsulation, hence grants high S ratio (~80%) and good specific capacity (~700 mA h g⁻¹ after 300 cycles). Eventually, this route realizes an unprecedented negative GHG emission and achieves about 230% specific capacity higher than others.