Healable Lithium Alloy Anode with Ultrahigh Capacity

Abstract

Effective recycling of spent Li metal anodes is an urgent need for energy/resource conservation and environmental protection, making Li metal batteries more affordable and sustainable. For the first time, we explore a unique sustainable healable lithium alloy anode inspired by the intrinsic healing ability of liquid metal. This lithium alloy anode can transform back to the liquid state through Li-completed extraction, and then the structure degradation generated during operation could be healed. Therefore, an ultralong cycle life of more than 1300 times can be successfully realized under harsh conditions of 5 mA h cm–2 capacitance by a process of two healing behaviors. This design improves the sustainable utilization of Li metal to a great extent, bringing about unexpected effects in the field of lithium-based anodes even at an unprecedentedly high discharge current density (up to 25 mA cm–2) and capacity (up to 50 mA h cm–2).

Sb2S3 Nanorod Hierarchies Enabling Homogeneous Sodium Deposition for Dendrite-Free Sodium-Metal Batteries

“…In this regard, constructing a substrate with uniformly distributed nanoseeds as “sodiophilic sites” is beneficial to decrease the overpotential and enable a uniform deposition of Na metal. To date, a series of metallic materials (e.g., Sn, Sb) have been proven that they can reduce the nucleation barrier of Na due to the alloy-type reaction during the electrochemical process . However, the great volume variation of the alloy-type anodes upon ion insertion/extraction usually causes electrode pulverization and then fast capacity decay .…”

“…To date, a series of metallic materials (e.g., Sn, Sb) have been proven that they can reduce the nucleation barrier of Na due to the alloy-type reaction during the electrochemical process. 24 However, the great volume variation of the alloy-type anodes upon ion insertion/extraction usually causes electrode pulverization and then fast capacity decay. 25 In this regard, Li and co-workers demonstrated that Sn@C can serve as an ideal substrate for Na deposition, 26 27 Nevertheless, the synthesis of the above unique structures generally requires time-consuming and tedious synthetic procedures, thus limiting their practical applications.…”

Design of Polymer‐in‐Salt Electrolyte for Solid State Lithium Battery with Wide Working Temperature Range

“…Compared with liquid electrolytes, solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) have attracted wide attention due to their high safety and superior processability [1–6] . In particular, the good mechanical properties of SPE can effectively restrain the growth of lithium dendrite, as a consequence, SPEs can utilize lithium‐metal cathode to achieve high energy densities [7–10] . To obtain SPEs with high ionic conductivity, polymers with high dielectric constant and lithium salt solvation ability, such as Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) are widely used [11] .…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] In particular, the good mechanical properties of SPE can effectively restrain the growth of lithium dendrite, as a consequence, SPEs can utilize lithiummetal cathode to achieve high energy densities. [7][8][9][10] To obtain SPEs with high ionic conductivity, polymers with high dielectric constant and lithium salt solvation ability, such as Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) are widely used. [11] Among them, PEO is the most studied owing to its flexible ether oxygen bond that can effectively dissolve lithium salt through the solvation effect.…”

Facile, Atom-Economic, Chemical Thinning Strategy for Ultrathin Lithium Foils

“…With the large-scale popularization of lithium-ion batteries, lithium resources become increasingly expensive, and thus the recycling of lithium attracts more and more attention. , When the free electrons in the Li-Naph/DME solution are consumed, the Li-Naph complex will lose its reduction activity and be oxidized to free Li + and naphthalene. To improve lithium resource utilization, we further design an accessible approach to retracting Li + from the inactive Li-Naph/DME waste solution, as illustrated in Figure a.…”