Abstract
Co-upcycling plastics with lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) into carbon nanotubes (CNTs) offers a promising high-value approach; however, it is hindered by the challenge of poisoning metal catalysts by carbon deposition and the uncontrollable particle growth. Here, we propose a co-upcycling strategy to convert spent LiNixCoyMn1-x-yO2 (NCM) and binary plastics—polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and other plastics—into NiCoMnOx/CNTs composites (or materials) for microwave absorption. During the pyrolysis, the generated pyrolysis gas reduces the NCM to NiCoMnOx and Li2CO3, and the NiCoMnOx catalyzes the decomposition of pyrolysis gas to generate CNTs. Importantly, Li2CO3 suppresses the growth of NiCo particles to below 100 nm and PET as both an etching agent and a carbon source, achieving a carbon conversion rate of 33% while preventing NiCoMnOx poisoning. After heat treatment at 800 °C, the resulting material exhibits favorable microwave absorption with an effective absorption bandwidth (EAB, RL <−10 dB) of 7.01 GHz at 2.41 mm. Life cycle analysis (LCA) shows that this strategy has obvious environmental benefits. Overall, PET is a general enabler to prepare (NixCoy)MnO/CNTs microwave-absorbing materials harnessing carbon from binary plastics and critical metals from battery materials, providing a sustainable solution for upcycling spent LIBs and plastic wastes.
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The authors declare that the main data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information files. Extra data are available from the corresponding author upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
We greatly thank the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (5255401, H.Y.Y.), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2042023kf0214, H.Y.Y.), Fujian Provincial Science and Technology Major Project (2023HZ021005, D.X.F.), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (N2425012, D.X.F.).
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Baolong Qiu and Yuanzhao Hou contributed equally to this work. Huayi Yin and Baolong Qiu proposed the concept, Baolong Qiu performed sample synthesis, characterization, measurement, and writing. Yuanzhao Hou performed sample characterization and electromagnetic properties analysis. Zhan Shi analysis the environmental impacts by the OpenLCA. Pin Du drew the mechanism diagram. Nuo Xu performed sample synthesis experiments. Qing Han, Hongwei Xie and Huayi Yin provided experimental conditions. Baolong Qiu and Yuanzhao Hou wrote the manuscript, Huayi Yin, Qing Han, Lawrence Yoon Suk Lee, Mengjie Liu, Kuiren Liu, Jianshe Chen, Binchuan Li and Dihua Wang revised it. All authors contributed to the entire manuscript.
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Qiu, B., Hou, Y., Shi, Z. et al. Co-upcycling spent lithium-ion batteries and plastics into microwave absorbing materials with Ni-Co catalyst control. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69501-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69501-1
