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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsYes—researchers reported using a deep eutectic solvent made from choline chloride and ethylene glycol to extract lithium and cobalt from spent lithium-ion battery cathodes. The process was demonstrated at laboratory scale, not as a commercial recycling line or a safe home method.
What solvent did the researchers use?
The 2019 study described in Chemistry World’s report used a deep eutectic solvent (DES), a mixture of choline chloride and ethylene glycol. The researchers applied it to cathode waste from more than one lithium-ion battery chemistry, aiming to recover lithium and cobalt.
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The report describes adding cathode waste to the solvent and heating it. An example condition was about 130 °C for roughly one hour, during which lithium and cobalt ions leached into the liquid. These are reported laboratory conditions, not instructions for handling or processing batteries outside a controlled facility.
How were the metals recovered?
The report describes two routes for taking dissolved metal ions back out of the solvent:
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- Electrodeposition: applying an electric current to deposit metal ions.
- Precipitation: adding sodium carbonate to form lithium and cobalt salts, which can then be filtered.
Filtration was also reported to separate aluminum foil, binder, and conductive carbon from the cathode material. This is distinct from recovering dissolved metals: it is a separation of solid components from the waste.
What recovery rates did the report give?
Chemistry World attributed two figures to the research team: more than 90% cobalt recovery, and about four out of five grams of solvent recovered after each cycle. These are the team’s reported results as presented in the 2019 coverage; the figures are not independently validated here and should not be read as guaranteed performance in other batteries or operating conditions.
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Why is the method interesting—and what remains uncertain?
Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries can recover valuable materials. The report situated the DES approach alongside high-temperature pyrometallurgy and conventional acid-based hydrometallurgy. But it did not provide a life-cycle assessment showing that this particular process has a lower total environmental impact. Calling the solvent “green” does not by itself establish the energy use, waste burden, or full environmental performance of the recycling process.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The work was laboratory-scale. The 2019 report said pilot-scale economics and the amount of solvent recoverable over repeated cycles still required evaluation. A broader review published in January 2026 discusses DES recovery from decommissioned batteries, including regeneration, reported efficiencies, and limitations, but it does not establish industrial readiness for this specific 2019 method: the review in Chemical Engineering Science.
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There were also questions about how the solvent behaves in use. Chemistry World reported materials chemist Mark Foreman’s concern that heating battery waste with DES as a reducing agent could degrade the solvent, along with questions about dilution and separating transition metals downstream. The report presents parts of his critique indirectly, so it does not support treating those concerns as a definitive test result.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How this differs from another “green solvent” battery study
A separate 2021 study used triethyl phosphate to dissolve PVDF binder and separate cobalt-containing cathode material from aluminum foil. That work addressed separating the coating from its foil support; it was not the same process as leaching lithium and cobalt into a choline-chloride/ethylene-glycol solvent. See the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering study.
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These approaches cannot be ranked from the cited reports alone. A useful comparison would need consistent evidence about what each process separates, operating conditions and energy demand, metal selectivity and purity, solvent recovery, waste streams, and performance at scale.
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