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- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received August 29, 2025
Revised November 1, 2025
Accepted February 4, 2026
Available online May 25, 2026
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Spent Lithium-ion Battery Recycling: the Thermodynamics and Kinetics Process of NCM Cathode Materials Reduced with Hazelnut Shells Via the Coats-Redfern Method
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-026-00671-w
Abstract
The reduction of NCM cathode materials by waste biomass is currently a hot topic in the field of energy recovery. In
China, large quantities of hazelnut shells are discarded every year, which, if as a reducing agent, can achieve the ecofriendly
goal of “treating waste with waste”. While there is currently a lack of comprehensive studies on the kinetic and
thermodynamic characteristics of NCM reduction using hazelnut shells. In this study, the thermodynamic feasibility of
reducing NCM cathode with pyrolysis products from hazelnut shells was confirmed. Subsequently, based on thermogravimetric
analysis, the entire reduction process was divided into four stages, in which the reactions including dehydration,
pyrolysis, and reduction. Kinetic analysis, which via the Coats-Redfern method in the segments with distinct reaction
characteristics in the stages, indicated that the Random nucleation (n=1) model (A1) consistently exhibited the highest
correlation coefficient across all four segments. At heating rates ranging from 5~20°C/min, Ea remained between 40.6 and
405.9 kJ/mol. And the ranges of A from segment I to segment IV are 7.4×105
~ 1.6×106
, 8.7×108
~ 6.1×1011, 1.8×1020
~ 7.9×1030, and 8.5×1018 ~ 4.7×1019 min−1, respectively. The thermodynamic parameter ΔG and ΔH values are positive,
ΔS changes from negative to positive in segment I to Ⅳ. The information obtained in this study presents a preliminary
theoretical framework for the potential industrial application of hazelnut shells reducing NCM cathode materials.
