Owing to its lowest
standard redox potential, low density, and
high theoretical specific capacity, lithium metal has been considered
to be the ideal anode material for secondary lithium batteries. However,
lithium metal is thermodynamically unstable in liquid organic electrolytes
(LOEs). When lithium metal comes in contact with an LOE, it reacts
easily with it to form the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer.
Once the stable and robust SEI layer forms, it can inhibit the direct
contact between lithium metal and LOE and the further decomposition
of the electrolyte. Nevertheless, the inhomogeneity in chemical composition
or thickness of the SEI layer can cause the growth of lithium dendrites,
which lead to short-circuits in batteries. In this study, we suggested
the use of urea as a new electrolyte additive to restrain the growth
of lithium dendrites via the formation of a uniform and robust SEI
layer on the lithium surface. The Li symmetric cell with 0.5 M urea
electrolyte additive exhibited better cyclability over 415 cycles
at 1 mA cm–2; this number of cycles was >40 times
larger than that of the Li symmetric cell without urea additive. Further,
the Li–O2 cell with electrolyte additive was cycled
for more than 200 cycles at 0.1 mA cm–2 under the
limited capacity mode of 1000 mA h g–1.