Another major technical challenge in leaching as well as in froth flotation is the deposition of hydrophobic PVDF on the surface of CAM particles as well as the presence of other organics (such as electrolytes). This leads to not only a reduction in graphite grade during froth flotation but also hinders the leaching of Li and other metals from BM feed. Pyrolysis of NMC BM to remove PVDF remains the most popular choice as it can evaporate electrolyte solvents and decompose the majority of the PVDF binder at temperatures 400 -600 °C. In this study, TGA/MS running under pyrolytic conditions (Fig. ) is used to analyze the gases that evolved during the pyrolysis pretreatment process, where the results show the evolution of carbonaceous and fluorinated species. As discussed, the inert TGA/MS method in Fig. can be used to detect the residual electrolytes while the oxidative TGA/MS method in Fig. can be used to estimate the amount of PVDF binder in BM. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. , SEM/EDS can reveal more local information about the distribution of PVDF binder on particle surfaces.