Photoassisted High-Performance Lithium Anode Enabled by Oriented Crystal Planes

Abstract

Lithium (Li) metal anodes are candidates for the next-generation high-performance lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, uncontrolable Li dendrite growth leads to safety issues and a low Coulombic efficiency (CE), which hinders the commercialization of Li metal batteries. Stable Li anodes based on the tailored plane deposition and photoassisted synergistic current collectors are currently the subject of research; however, there are few related studies. To suppress the growth of Li dendrites and achieve dense Li deposition, we design a low-cost customized-facet/photoassisted synergistic dendrite-free anode. The tailored (002) plane endows it with a nanorod array/microsphere composite structure and exhibits a strong affinity for Li, which effectively reduces the Li+ nucleation overpotential and promotes uniform Li deposition. Notably, during the photoassisted Li deposition/stripping process, due to electron–hole separation, a weakly charged layer is formed on the (002) surface and local charge carrier changes are induced, reducing the overpotential by 8.3 mV, enhancing the reaction kinetics, and resulting in a high CE of ∼99.3% for the 300th cycle at 2 mA cm–2. This work is of great significance for the field of next-generation photoassisted Li metal anodes.

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“…Photo-assisted Li-metal battery, reproduced by permission. 14 Copyright 2022, American Chemical Society. Photo-assisted Zn-Te battery, reproduced by permission.…”

“…[7][8][9][10] For integrated energy storage systems, photo-assisted rechargeable batteries are among the most efficient. [11][12][13][14][15] The asdesigned photo-assisted rechargeable batteries provide a potential way to utilize sunlight on a large scale and achieve effective, more economical, durable and environmentally friendly integration of solar energy into chemical energy in the batteries. People have been working on photo-assisted charging battery devices lately because they can effectively convert and store solar energy directly.…”

“…Song's team 30 published the first study on photo-assisted Al–air batteries in 2022, allowing the use of aluminum–air batteries to transform solar energy into electrical energy and giving a new approach to control aluminium corrosion in aluminum–air batteries. Bao's team 14 studied the effect of photo-assisted treatment on negative electrode-free lithium metal batteries. Light irradiation is beneficial for improving the material's lithium affinity and cycling stability, effectively alleviating the lithium dendrite problem.…”

Pulsed Current Constructs 3DM Cu/ZnO Current Collector Composite Anode for Free-Dendritic Lithium Metal Batteries

“…Focusing on increasing the energy density of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), lithium metal with a high theoretical specific capacity (3860 mAh g −1 ) and low redox potential (−3.040 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode) have been extensively investigated [1][2][3][4]. However, uncontrollable lithium dendrite growth and dead lithium (inactive lithium) generation during repeated cycles lead to instability at the lithium metal anode interface, which results in a waste of lithium resources, a low Coulombic efficiency (CE), and even incurs safety hazards, which seriously restrict their practical applications [5][6][7][8]. Many efforts such as the construction of three-dimensional (3D) skeletal structures, loads with lithiophilic active sites, prepositioned artificial solid electrolyte interphases (SEI), and separator modifications have been devoted to tackle the above issues [9][10][11][12][13].…”

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