Washington: Scientists have created a solvent that can extract valuable elements from discarded batteries, and could potentially help reduce the amount of electronic wastes ending up in landfills. The team from Rice University in the US used an environmentally friendly deep eutectic solvent to extract valuable elements from the metal oxides commonly used as cathodes in lithium-ion batteries. The goal was to curtail the use of harsh processes to recycle batteries and keep them out of landfills.

The solvent, made of commodity products choline chloride and ethylene glycol, extracted more than 90 per cent of cobalt from powdered compounds, and a smaller but still significant amount from used batteries. "Rechargeable battery waste, particularly from lithium-ion batteries, will become an increasingly menacing environmental challenge in the future as the demand for these through their usage in electric vehicles and other gadgets increases dramatically," said Pulickel Ajayan, a scientist at Rice University.