Yaocai Bai

Bio

Yaocai Bai is an R&D Staff Scientist within the Emerging and Solid-State Batteries Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Yaocai’s research focuses on accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy through materials innovation and developing sustainable processes for lithium-ion battery recycling. Yaocai's specific interests include lithium-ion battery manufacturing and recycling, where he leads the Advanced Resource Recovery research thrust in DOE's ReCell center, as well as catalyst development for metal-air batteries and electrolyzers.  Yaocai has extensive research experience in materials synthesis, energy conversion and storage, and battery recycling, in which he has published ~70 peer-reviewed journal articles and holds seven granted patents and two patent applications.

Awards

• R&D100 award “Direct Recycling and Remanufacturing of Li-Ion Battery Electrode Scraps” (2024)
• UT-Battelle Outstanding Research Output team award (2023)
• ECS Toyota Young Investigator Award (2023)
• ORNL Supplemental Performance Award (2023, 2024, 2025)

Education

09/2012 – 03/2017  Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering 

University of California, Riverside

09/2010 – 07/2012  M.S. Materials Science and Engineering

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia

09/2006 – 06/2010 B.S. Material Chemistry 

University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

Professional Service

• Editorial Board member for Energy Storage Materials
• Associate Editor for Advanced Manufacturing.
• Editorial Advisory Board member and guest editor for Clean Technologies & Recycling.
• Guest editor for Batteries, special issues "Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling" and "Material Science and Electrochemistry in Battery Processing and Manufacturing".

Trademarks and Patents

1. Belharouak, I., Bai, Y., & Essehli, R. (2023). Recovery of materials from electrode scraps and spent lithium-ion batteries via a green solvent-based separation process (U.S. Patent No. 11,664,542 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
2. Bai, Y., Belharouak, I., & Essehli, R. (2023). Direct recycling of lithium-ion battery anode scraps for manufacturing a new anode (U.S. Patent No. 11,721,850 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
3. Belharouak, I., Bai, Y., Li, J., & Essehli, R. (2024). Efficient recovery processes for the black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries (U.S. Patent No. 11,916,206 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
4. Luo, H., Dai, S., Wang, T., Belharouak, I., Li, J., & Bai, Y. (2024). Direct regeneration of lithium ion cathodes by ionothermal relithiation (U.S. Patent No. 11,996,557 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
5. Belharouak, I., Bai, Y., Essehli, R., & Li, J. (2024). Relithiation process for direct regeneration of cathode materials from spent lithium-ion batteries (U.S. Patent No. 12,068,472 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
6. Belharouak, I., & Bai, Y. (2022). Method of recycling materials from lithium-ion batteries (U.S. Patent No. 12,327,847 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
7. Belharouak, I., Bai, Y., & Essehli, R. (2021). Recovery of materials from spent batteries using a green solvent (U.S. Patent No. 12,444,780 B2). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
8. Li, J., Bai, Y., Li, M., & Wood, D. (2021). Synthesis of transition metal layered oxide materials for battery cathodes (U.S. Patent Application No. 17/548,838). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
9. Belharouak, I., Yu, L., Bai, Y., & Essehli, R. (2024). Method for recycling cathode materials using a dual function solution (U.S. Patent Application No. 18/673,625). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Publications