Given that the recovered electrode material is not subjected to additional heat treatment after filtration, the formation of In2O3 and InOCl species may also partly originate from the high vacuum conditions applied during XPS measurements. During the recycling process, in addition to the Li + /H + exchange mechanism, transition metals from the electrode materials may dissolve into water, allowing In 3+ ion to replace a transition metal in the lattice near the particle surface. Due to the higher solubility of the Li + cation compared to In 3+ cation, only indium precipitates under these conditions. This behavior can be attributed to the higher charge of indium, which results in the formation of less soluble compounds, while lithium remains in solution . Further, lithium usually precipitates in the form of LiOH and Li2CO3 at higher pH levels of 13-14 and, or high lithium concentrations, which could explain why Li is not precipitating along with In .