•The upcycling process can regenerate market-preferred NMC cathode materials•The overcomes the limitation of feedstock and final product•The upcycled materials have good rate cycle performance As a part an ongoing goal reducing greenhouse gas emissions limiting impact global warming, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are being widely applied in consumer electronics, energy storage, electric vehicles...

We demonstrate the fabrication of high-quality electrochemically active organic 9 lithium electrode thin films by the currently strongly emerging combined atomic/molecular layer 10 deposition (ALD/MLD) technique using lithium terephthalate, a recently found anode material for 11 lithium-ion battery (LIB), as a proof-of-the-concept material. Our deposition process for Li12 terephthalate is shown...