Lithium-ion batteries are essential to electrification and sustainability goals, yet their production and disposal present significant environmental challenges. With demand for electric vehicles, grid storage, and portable electronics growing rapidly, manufacturers and laboratories face pressure to optimize battery performance and minimize environmental impact. Global regulations, supply chain disruptions, and the urgent need to advance material circularity make life cycle analysis (LCA) a critical tool.
LCA offers a structured approach for evaluating energy usage, emissions, and material flows from raw material sourcing through end-of-life recycling. A key component of this is understanding how lithium-ion batteries degrade over time—through calendar aging, electrochemical cycling, and temperature effects—which directly impacts performance, recyclability, and sustainability.
By analyzing these aging processes through lithium-ion battery life cycle analysis, analytical scientists can help address material trade-offs, minimize environmental impact, and inform performance and recovery strategies.
This article is based on insights shared during the Battery Analysis: Key Techniques and Emerging Trends webinar, in which Dr. Sascha Nowak from the MEET Battery Research Center examined critical factors influencing lithium-ion battery performance and sustainability.
Essential Analytical Techniques for Supporting LCA and Recycling
A range of analytical methods underpins LCA and battery recycling quality control. Tools such as Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) assess the purity of recovered lithium, cobalt, and nickel during recycling. As Dr. Nowak notes, they are also essential for understanding aging through lithium quantification, alongside surface techniques like XPS and ToF-SIMS and chromatography for electrolyte decomposition products.
Complementary methods, including Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), reveal structural changes in materials and support failure analysis.
"Almost every available analytical method can contribute to the characterization of lithium-ion batteries, whether it’s for initial production quality control, in-use performance monitoring, or post-mortem analysis during recycling," Dr. Nowak adds.
From Laboratory Data to Actionable Life Cycle Insights
While laboratory techniques generate valuable data, translating these results into actionable life cycle insights requires further processing and interpretation. Analytical scientists play a pivotal role in providing accurate, quantitative information on material composition, degradation, and contamination. These data sets feed directly into LCA models, helping to calculate environmental impacts, compare recycling pathways, and inform regulatory reporting.
Collaboration between laboratory teams, process engineers, and LCA specialists ensures that analytical results are applied effectively to improve battery sustainability metrics.
Linking LCA with Battery Materials Analysis: A Case Study in Aging and Recycling
Beyond reducing in-use performance, lithium-ion battery aging introduces complex chemical changes that complicate recycling. To investigate these challenges and support circular economy goals, Dr. Sascha Nowak and his team conducted a detailed case study focused on analyzing aged lithium-ion batteries and recycling scrap.
Case Study: Investigating Battery Aging and Recycling Challenges
Dr. Nowak's objective was to assess how degradation processes—such as electrolyte decomposition, metal migration, and binder breakdown—influence material recovery and battery sustainability.
To answer this question, the team applied a suite of advanced analytical techniques to examine the full chemical profile of aged batteries and scrap. Their approach was designed to uncover both the types of substances formed during battery aging and the mechanisms through which they disrupt recycling efficiency and safety.
Comprehensive Analytical Approach
The team deployed a comprehensive set of methods—ranging from ICP-OES and ICP-MS for metals quantification to chromatography and surface analysis for residual electrolytes. This multi-modal strategy enabled the identification and quantification of a wide range of chemical species. Among these were key transition metals (nickel, manganese, cobalt, lithium), as well as persistent electrolyte residues and harmful byproducts such as fluorinated organophosphates.
To further characterize the role of polymer binders in contamination, the researchers employed binder fingerprinting techniques. This allowed them to trace how aged or degraded binder materials—normally used to hold active materials together—contributed to impurity profiles during the recycling process.
Deep-Dive: Tracking and Tracing Contaminants
To deepen their insights, the team integrated highly sensitive methods capable of resolving subtle chemical shifts and contamination pathways. These methods included the following:
- Lithium-6 isotope markers were used to track lithium loss and migration through the battery structure.
- Capillary electrophoresis provided detailed information on the oxidation states of dissolved metal species, adding a new dimension to the chemical mapping of aging-induced changes.
- Total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) was applied to detect elemental impurities at trace levels from extremely small samples.
The use of pyrolysis GC-MS allowed for precise identification of binder chemistries, confirming the presence of PVDF and CMC/SBR systems—both of which degrade under thermal and electrochemical stress, contributing to complex waste streams.
Key Findings and Implications
Their findings reveal that harmful substances formed during battery aging—particularly fluorinated compounds and sulfur residues—can significantly interfere with material recovery during recycling. Of particular concern was the detection of sulfur-based contaminants, which may lead to the formation of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) gas during thermal processing—posing a toxicity risk and operational challenge for recyclers.
By combining techniques with high analytical precision and complementary scope, the team was able to map contamination pathways, propose process-specific adjustments, and outline best practices for improving quality control in lithium-ion battery recycling workflows.
"In recycling, it’s not only about recovering valuable metals but also analyzing electrolyte residues and binder systems, which can interfere with processing or release harmful substances," emphasizes Dr. Nowak.
"With elemental analysis, we can determine the ratios of metals—such as nickel, manganese, cobalt—and track unexpected elements like sulfur or phosphorus, which could originate from additives."
"The same analytical methods we use during operation and post-mortem analysis also apply in recycling workflows to ensure recovered materials meet performance and safety standards."
Conclusion: Advancing Circular Economy Through Chemistry
Ultimately, this case study illustrates how the integration of life cycle analysis with advanced materials characterization does more than generate data—it yields actionable insights. By clearly identifying and tracing harmful degradation products, the team demonstrates how analytical rigor can optimize recycling processes, support cleaner recovery streams, and contribute meaningfully to circular economy initiatives in energy storage.
Key Metrics That Drive Battery Sustainability and Life Cycle Analysis
LCA incorporates key performance metrics to complement laboratory analysis:
- Energy return on investment (EROI): Measuring energy efficiency during production and recycling.
- Recyclability index: Estimating economically recoverable material content.
- Material circularity indicator (MCI): Calculating reused versus virgin materials.
These sustainability metrics, combined with advanced test data, help define meaningful benchmarks for battery recycling quality control and circular economy performance.
Preparing Analytical Workflows for Next-Generation Batteries
As global sustainability standards evolve and battery technologies advance, analytical laboratories will face new challenges. Emerging chemistries such as solid-state and sodium-ion batteries will introduce new analytical considerations.
"Looking ahead to next-generation cells like all-solid-state or sodium-ion batteries, the analytical challenges will shift, but life cycle analysis and advanced testing will remain essential," concludes Dr. Nowak.
Solid-state batteries, for example, eliminate liquid electrolytes, reducing some risks but requiring more advanced surface analysis techniques. Sodium-ion batteries offer cost and sourcing advantages, but analytical methods must be adjusted to address new materials and interfaces. Continued innovation and flexibility in laboratory testing will be vital.
Integrating Life Cycle Thinking into Laboratory Practice
By embedding life cycle analysis into battery development, manufacturing, operation, and recycling, analytical scientists can strengthen battery recycling quality control, maximize material recovery, and advance sustainability goals. With global demand for greener energy storage growing, laboratories are poised to play a leading role in shaping the future of lithium-ion and next-generation battery systems.
Meet the Expert
Dr. Sascha Nowak is Head of the Division of Analytics and Environment at the MEET Battery Research Center, University of Münster. With a PhD in analytical chemistry, Dr. Nowak has spent over a decade researching lithium-ion battery aging, degradation, and recycling. He leads innovative studies on battery materials analysis and is passionate about advancing sustainable battery technologies. His work bridges fundamental science and real-world applications, helping manufacturers optimize performance and recycling processes through advanced analytical methods.