A Dendrite‐Free Lithium/Carbon Nanotube Hybrid for Lithium‐Metal Batteries

Abstract

Lithium (Li) metal is promising in the next‐generation energy storage systems. However, its practical application is still hindered by the poor cycling performance and serious safety issues for the consequence of dendritic Li. Herein, a dendrite‐free Li/carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrid is proposed, which is fabricated by direct coating molten Li on CNTs, for Li‐metal batteries. The favorable thermodynamic and kinetic conditions are the powerful force to drive the rapid lift upwards and infusion of molten Li into CNTs network, which is the key to form a uniform metallic layer in Li/CNTs hybrid. The obtained hybrid indicates super‐stable functions even at an ultrahigh current density of 40 mA cm−2 for 2000 cycles with a stripping/plating capacity of 2 mAh cm−2 in symmetric cells. Subsequently, this hybrid also demonstrates a significantly decreased resistance, excellent cycling stability at high current density and flexibility in the full Li‐S battery. This work provides valuable concepts in fabricating Li anodes toward Li‐metal batteries and beyond for their high‐level services.

Lithium‐Metal Anodes Working at 60 mA cm−2 and 60 mAh cm−2 through Nanoscale Lithium‐Ion Adsorbing

“…(b) Galvanostatic cycling profiles of symmetric cells with the LAL/Li electrode or bare Li electrode at 60 mAh cm −2 and 60 mA cm −2 . (c) Comparison of the current density, areal capacity, and cycle life of symmetric cells with the LAL/Li electrode and those of previously reported excellent Li‐metal anodes stabilized by various strategies [27–32] . (d) Li plating/stripping overpotentials of the LAL/Li and bare Li electrodes at a spectrum of current densities from 1 to 60 mA cm −2 .…”

Carbon materials for stable Li metal anodes: Challenges, solutions, and outlook

“…Molten Li infusion into a 3D carbon host is a facile and scalable method to fabricate a Li/C composite electrode, but it requires the carbon host to have high lithiophilicity (i.e., wettability of molten Li). 89 Carbon hosts doped with heteroatom(s) (e.g., graphene oxide [GO], doped graphene, and carbon-derived biomass) show high molten Li wettability, ascribed to their richness in lithiophilic functional groups, which promote the fabrication of Li/C composites. 17,61,90-94 Lin et al 17 reported the fabrication of a layered rGO/Li composite film via Li-assisted reduction of a vacuum-filtered GO film.…”

Amorphous carbon-based materials as platform for advanced high-performance anodes in lithium secondary batteries

“…In addition, ACMs are also beneficial for alleviating the huge volume change during the batteries cycling [106][107][108]. Therefore, ACMs could be the efficient 3D hosts for Li metal deposition [93,[109][110][111]. For instance, Liu et al reported the synthesis of a bendable 3D hollow carbon-based fiber (3D-HCFs) using cotton as precursor for LMA [112].…”