Toward Sustainable Polymer Materials for Rechargeable Batteries: Utilizing Natural Feedstocks and Recycling/Upcycling of Polymer Waste

The ever-increasing demand for rechargeable battery systems in the era of electric vehicles has spurred extensive research into developing polymeric components for batteries, such as separators, polymer electrolytes, and binders. However, current battery systems rely on expensive and nonrenewable resources, which potentially have a negative environmental impact. Therefore, polymer materials derived from natural resources have gained significant attention, primarily due to their cost-effective and environmentally sustainable features. Moreover, natural feedstocks often possess highly polar functional groups and high molecular weights, offering desirable electro-chemo-mechanical features when applied as battery materials. More recently, various recycling and upcycling strategies for polymeric battery components have also been proposed given the substantial waste generation from end-of-life batteries. Recycling polymeric materials includes an overall process of recovering the components from spent batteries followed by regeneration into new materials. Polymer upcycling into battery materials involves transforming daily-used plastic waste into high-value-added battery components. This review aims to give a state-of-the-art overview of contemporary methods to develop sustainable polymeric materials and recycling/upcycling strategies for various battery applications. This review offers valuable insight into devising sustainable battery solutions through the utilization of natural feedstocks for developing sustainable polymer materials in rechargeable battery applications, which encompasses polymer electrolytes, electrodes, and binder materials. Furthermore, state-of-the-art research endeavors for recycling and upcycling polymer materials for versatile battery applications are also explored. image