ASU researcher to streamline battery recycling

Professor Candace Chan wins new seed grant to mitigate energy insufficiency

Imagine this: It’s 10 a.m. on a sunny Sunday morning when you realize that your electricity bill for the month has doubled, not because you used more power, but because the grid couldn’t keep up.

This hypothetical scenario could soon be a reality due to rising energy demands.

The rapid advancement and use of artificial intelligence have skyrocketed electricity consumption. In fact, by 2030, data centers alone are expected to consume more power than the entire nation of Japan today, around 945 terawatt-hours.

If experts don’t discover new energy sources, the world could face a significant shortage of electricity — the backbone of modern society.

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar have the potential to fill this gap, but require power systems to store excess energy for later use. Lithium-ion batteries are emerging as a reliable solution to meet that need. They power a wide range of technologies, from electric vehicles to portable electronics and medical devices. Yet, the U.S. doesn’t have enough of the critical raw materials used to make these batteries.

One such material is graphite, a form of carbon that is primarily mined and processed in China, raising concerns about supply chain security.

Enter Candace Chan. She was recently awarded one of six seed grants from the ASU Center for Clean Energy Materials, or CCEM, to explore how to recycle graphite from used batteries.

Chan is a professor of materials science and engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, at Arizona State University. Her success could have major implications not just on your electric bills but also the country’s safety and economic self-sufficiency.

But, there’s a catch.

Unlike other components of lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium and cobalt, recovering graphite is not straightforward.

Untangling the battery 

To understand the complex graphite recovery mechanism, one needs to understand the key components of a lithium-ion battery.

A lithium-ion battery consists of the electrolyte, which is a medium that allows the movement of ions, and the anode and cathode electrodes. The electrodes store energy and are made of different materials. Graphite is often used on the anode, or negative side, while materials, such as lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide are used on the cathode, or positive side. A thin polymer film prevents the electrodes from touching and short-circuiting, which can lead to fire and explosions.

There’s one other component that makes the system work but also complicates graphite recovery: metal foils. These foils act as current collectors and provide a surface for coating energy-storing materials.

Think of foil as a canvas and the electrode materials as paint. On the anode side, graphite is “painted” onto copper foil; on the cathode side, materials like lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide are applied to aluminum foil. However, this process, while critical to battery performance, makes it difficult to recover graphite since the materials are so tightly bonded to the foil.

Recovering graphite

Traditionally, industry uses two main approaches for recovering battery materials from the foils so that they can be reused to make new batteries. One process involves burning all the battery components and recovering only usable materials, such as metals. This method is destructive, especially for graphite because it turns into carbon dioxide.

The second way is to shred and dissolve the materials before distilling out graphite based on its properties such as density. While this method is less destructive, the extreme agitation leads to a contamination of graphite with copper ions from the foil. This method can cause severe safety issues down the line.

“We need to figure out a way of recovering graphite while still keeping copper foil intact,” Chan says.

She realized that controlling the drying process used to coat graphite to copper foil could unlock the ability to separate the components in a less destructive way.

However, she says that it’s a delicate process.

“If you dry graphite in such a way that it’s not stuck on copper foil very well, it might be easier to recycle later, but then it might not perform well when you actually want to use the battery because it is not adhered well, similar to how paint flakes off the wall if it’s not done correctly,” Chan says. “Right now, we’ve been focusing on graphite’s behavior after drying at different temperatures, like, 80 degrees versus 120 degrees Celsius. We’re also experimenting with applying pressure and temperature together.”

With the funding from the ASU Center for Clean Energy Materials, she plans to figure out suitable drying conditions to ensure optimum battery performance and graphite recovery. She will also study the materials’ properties to understand, on a fundamental level, how they bond with each other and use the knowledge to better design recovery mechanisms.

The project is scheduled to last six months and could result in not just a novel way to recover graphite but a more efficient approach to making sustainable lithium-ion batteries.

“Ultimately, having better recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries could strengthen the domestic industry and national security,” she says. “Also, having our own supply chain would cut lithium-ion batteries costs, hence making electric vehicles and other devices that need lithium-ion batteries cheaper.”

Students making batteries from scratch

Chan is also determined to support the next generation of materials scientists and battery engineers.

During the spring 2025 semester, she led 40 students to successfully create lithium-ion battery pouch cells in ASU’s Battery Lab.

“LG Energy Solution in Queen Creek and two other factories in Tucson are setting up battery plants, and they will need people familiar with the battery-making process,” Chan says. “We want to prepare our students for the opportunity and it was pretty cool to see the first batch of students go through the process successfully.”

To her, the lab represents more than just research — it will also open doors to community college students and people in the workforce interested in upskilling by learning how to make lithium-ion batteries.

The lab is part of a Fulton Schools effort to collaborate with industry in developing future-focused technologies and science-based solutions.

Reflecting on his experience making a lithium-ion battery, Maddox Turner, a first-year materials science and engineering student, says that being part of the class was fun and foundational to his career trajectory.

“I am already using this experience to apply for battery-related jobs and internships over the summer,” says Turner. “The class gave me a foundational understanding of how batteries operate, the different types of batteries and how to make batteries safer. I hoped to do some research on batteries and supercapacitors later in my material science studies, but I never imagined that I’d get the opportunity to create a battery in my freshman year!”

Mugdha Manish Patil, a materials science and engineering graduate student, shares Turner’s sentiment.

“It was informative, hands-on and insightful,” she says.

Watch the process students used to make a lithium-ion battery pouch cell.