What Can be Expected from “Anode‐Free” Lithium Metal Batteries?

Abstract

“Anode‐free” lithium metal batteries are cells that have no excess lithium metal. They have become a topic of tremendous attention, mostly driven by recent progress and interest in practical batteries with Li metal anodes. These cells are expected to provide improved performance. However, a deeper analysis on the potential manufacturing costs have not been weighed against the cell attributes. Specifically, the increased energy density and gravimetric energy density of anode‐free cells versus their reduced cycle life when compared with standard lithium‐ion batteries (LIB). In this perspective, a multifaceted comparison between anode‐free batteries with current LIB and future Li metal‐based batteries is shown. Furthermore, not only an overview of the research strategies on the anode‐free design is provided but also attempted to estimate the potential advantages weighed in different scenarios considering cost, performance, processing, and technology maturity.

Heteroatom-Doped Flash Graphene

“…Compared to bare Cu electrode (54 mV), N-FG exhibits a smaller nucleation overpotential (11 mV) during the electrodeposition of metallic Li at 0.1 mA cm –2 (Figure h), which indicates a smaller nucleation energy barrier for N-FG. A smaller energy barrier for nucleation facilitates the formation of more homogeneous nuclei and subsequent uniform metallic Li deposition. , The nucleation overpotential for N-FG is smaller than that of FG (Figure i), because the binding energy of N-FG is stronger than in intrinsic FG. This result is consistent with a previous literature report …”

Influence of amorphous carbon interlayers on nucleation and early growth of lithium metal at the current collector-solid electrolyte interface

“… 4 An anode-free design brings the advantages of Li-metal anodes but with a significantly simplified manufacturing process due to the absence of the anode in as-manufactured cells. 5 In anode-free SSBs, the Li metal anode is reversibly formed and removed during charging and discharging. Nucleation and early growth behaviour of Li-metal is therefore of critical importance for anode-free SSBs.…”

A chemical lithiation induced Li4.4Sn lithiophilic layer for anode-free lithium metal batteries

“…Theoretically, anode-free lithium metal batteries are the ultimate choice. [12][13][14][15] These batteries include lithium-ion extraction/insertion in the cathode and plating/ stripping on the anode current collector during charge and discharge processes. However, the natural lithiophobic properties of copper foil as the current collector oen lead to nonuniform nucleation and low nucleation density.…”