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Oleksandr Dolotko, a materials scientist at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, and his colleagues used mechanochemistry — the initiation of a chemical reaction by mechanical force from grinding or milling — to recover lithium from lithium-ion batteries.

Mechanochemistry is not typically used in commercial chemical processes, and exactly how mechanical force initiates chemical reactions isn’t completely understood, says Dolotko.

But despite its growing importance, mechanochemistry remains something of an enigma — exactly how is mechanical energy translated into chemical reactivity?

Compressive mechanochemistry such as this might offer a general way to produce nanoparticles.

Mechanochemistry has a long history and is currently undergoing a renaissance2.