Waste to wealth: atomically dispersed cobalt-nitrogen-carbon from spent LiCoO 2 .

Atomic cobalt-nitrogen-carbon (Co-NC) material was synthesized using spent LiCoO 2 , and contained a heavy Co-N 4 loading (1.42 at%). The synthesized Co-NC exhibited high oxygen reduction reaction activity (with onset and half-wave potentials of 0.97 V and 0.87 V, respectively) and robust Al-air battery performance, delivering a specific power of 121.3 mW cm -2 .