Unusual Conformal Li Plating on Alloyable Nanofiber Frameworks to Enable Dendrite Suppression of Li Metal Anode
- Tiancun LiuTiancun LiuDepartment of Chemical Engineering, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. ChinaMore by Tiancun Liu,
- Jiulin HuJiulin HuState Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, P. R. ChinaMore by Jiulin Hu,
- Chilin Li*Chilin Li*Email: [email protected] (C. L.).State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, P. R. ChinaMore by Chilin Li, and
- Yong Wang*Yong Wang*Email: [email protected] (Y.W.).Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. ChinaMore by Yong Wang
Abstract

Li metal anode is deemed the most promising candidate anode for high-energy battery systems such as Li-sulfur and Li-fluoride batteries. However, some severe challenges, for example, facile formation and growth of Li dendrites, large volume evolution of hostless Li ,and low Coulombic efficiency of Li plating/stripping, still hinder the commercialization of Li-metal batteries (LMBs). Herein, a free-standing and highly flexible 3D current collector made of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) conformally coated by continuous Sn layer is synthesized by electrospinning method. Sn layer enables a lithiophilic and alloyable carbon skeleton surface and provides uniform and continuous Li nucleation sites, leading to unusual conformal Li plating behavior and effective inhibition of Li dendrites. The spatial confinement of Li plating mitigates the volume expansion and network distortion of CNFs. The electric contact reinforced by Sn interlayer achieves highly reversible Li stripping for more than 850 h for [email protected] symmetric cell. The small nucleation overpotential (28 mV) and potential polarization (14 mV for symmetric cell) benefit from the low energy barrier of Li–Sn alloying and following Li nucleation on Li–Sn layer. For [email protected]4 full cell, the capacity retention ratio is as high as 92.2% after 150 cycles at 0. 5C and the reversible capacities are maintained at 134.3 and 106.7 mAh g–1 at 2C and 5C respectively. The design of 3D lithiophilic current collector instead of planar Cu is a potential solution to highly safe LMBs.
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- Jianyu Chen, Xin Xu, Qian He, Yanwen Ma. Advanced Current Collectors for Alkali Metal Anodes. Chemical Research in Chinese Universities 2020, 451 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40242-020-0098-y
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- Yingxin Lin, Zhipeng Wen, Chaochao Yang, Peng Zhang, Jinbao Zhao. Strengthening dendrite suppression in lithium metal anode by in-situ construction of Li–Zn alloy layer. Electrochemistry Communications 2019, 108 , 106565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elecom.2019.106565




