Anode-free lithium metal batteries are the most promising candidate to outperform lithium metal batteries due to higher energy density and reduced safety hazards with the absence of metallic lithium anode during initial cell fabrication. In general, researchers report capacity retention, reversible capacity, or rate capability of the cells to study the electrochemical performance of anode-free lithium metal batteries. However, evaluating the behavior of batteries from limited aspects may easily overlook other information hidden deep inside the meretricious results or even lead to misguided data interpretation. In this work, we present an integrated protocol combining different types of cell configuration to determine various sources of irreversible coulombic efficiency in anode-free lithium metal cells. The decrypted information from the protocol provides an insightful understanding of the behaviors of LMBs and AFLMBs, which promotes their development for practical applications.

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Generating a sustainable energy source through photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting requires a suitable photocatalyst. A [101]-oriented rutile TiO 2 nanorod (NR) array in heterojunction with anatase on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate is successfully prepared using a facile single-step hydrothermal process. The presence of anatase phase over the predominant rutile NRs' surface is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Solar water-splitting performances of anatase−rutile heterojunction with low energy (101) and high energy (001) rutile facets are compared. The low energy (101) facet rutile−anatase heterojunction shows higher photoconversion efficiency of 1.39% at 0.49 V RHE than the high energy (001) facet rutile−anatase heterojunction (0.37% at 0.73 V RHE ). The mechanism for enhanced photocatalytic activity of the low energy (101) facet rutile−anatase heterojunction has been proposed. The role of NaCl in tuning the anatase portion, morphology, and PEC water-splitting performance has also been studied.