Naked metallic skin for homo-epitaxial deposition in lithium metal batteries

Abstract

Regulating the morphology of lithium plating is the key to extending the cycle life of lithium metal batteries. Fatal dendritic growth is closely related to out-of-plane nucleation on the lithium metal surface. Herein, we report a nearly perfect lattice match between the lithium metal foil and lithium deposits by removing the native oxide layer using simple bromine-based acid-base chemistry. The naked lithium surface induces homo-epitaxial lithium plating with columnar morphologies and lower overpotentials. Using the naked lithium foil, the lithium-lithium symmetric cell maintains stable cycling at 10 mA cm−2 for more than 10,000 cycles, and the full-cell paired with LiFePO4 with high areal capacity of 3.3 mAh cm−2 and practical N/P ratio of 2.5 exhibits 86% capacity retention after 300 cycles. This study elucidates the usefulness of controlling the initial surface state to facilitate homo-epitaxial lithium plating for sustainable cycling of lithium metal batteries.

Locally Concentrated Ionic Liquid Electrolytes Enabling Low‐Temperature Lithium Metal Batteries

“…This can be explained by the reconstruction of LMAs' native SEI mainly consisting of Li 2 O to newly generated SEI via the decomposition of the electrolyte. [55,56] Once this process is completed, the stable and low-impedance SEI enables robust cycling of LMAs with lower overpotential. In general, the electrochemical results demonstrate the feasibility of lithium stripping/plating at low temperatures in LCILEs.…”

Zwitterionic Covalent Organic Framework Based Electrostatic Field Electrocatalysts for Durable Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

“…The Sand’s time (initial time of dendrite growth) is affected by the transference number of anions according to the Chazalviel model (eq ). , τ = π D ( C 0 e 2 J t a ) 2 where τ is the Sand’s time, D is the bipolar diffusion coefficient, C 0 is the initial concentration of electrolyte, J is the effective current density and t a is the transference number of anions. The zwitterionic COF separator shows a lower t a , indicating that dendrite growth can be suppressed to a certain extent.…”

Steady cycling of lithium metal anode enabled by alloying Sn-modified carbon nanofibers

“…[7][8][9] Nonetheless, serious parasite reduction reactions of electrolytes on the Li anode surface, with uncontrolled growth of Li dendrites, are caused by the essential thermodynamic instability of Li, and have seriously hindered its practical application. [10][11][12][13][14][15] The solidelectrolyte interphase (SEI) breaks under the innite volume variation of "hostless" Li (5 mm per 1 mA h cm −2 ) and is repaired aer exposure of fresh Li to the electrolyte during cycling. 16,17 Continuous consumption of active Li and liquid electrolyte induces low coulombic efficiency (CE) and nally battery failure.…”