Abstract:Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles, and a large number of spent LIBs will inevitably be produced in the future, and if not handled properly, the resulting large amount of LIBs waste will definitely bring safety risks. In addition, behind the mass production of batteries is the consumption of many scarce precious metal resources. It can be seen that spent LIBs undoubtedly bring great pressure to environmental protection and resource recovery, and in view of serious environmental, resource, safety and recycling problems, the recycling of spent LIBs has become imminent. This review described the recovery routes of LIBs cathode materials in detail, which currently included hydrometallurgy, direct regeneration, pyrometallurgy and mechanochemistry. Among them, the mechanochemical method stood out among many recovery methods because of its safety and cleanliness, high reaction efficiency and low energy consumption, and this paper focused on the methods and progress of mechanochemical recovery of spent LiCoO2(LCO), LiNixCoyMnzO2(LNCM) and LiFePO4(LFP) cathode materials. This review provided a safe and effective way to recycle spent LIBs cathode materials and promoted the industrialization of mechanochemical recycling of cathode materials.