High-capacity, low-tortuosity, and channel-guided lithium metal anode.
Lithium metal anode with the highest capacity and lowest anode potential is extremely attractive to battery technologies, but infinite volume change during the Li stripping/plating process results in cracks and fractures of the solid electrolyte interphase, low Coulombic efficiency, and dendritic growth of Li. Here, we use a carbonized wood (C-wood) as a 3D, highly porous (73% porosity) conductive framework with well-aligned channels as Li host material. We discovered that molten Li metal can infuse into the straight channels of C-wood to form a Li/C-wood electrode after surface treatment. The C-wood channels function as excellent guides in which the Li stripping/plating process can take place and effectively confine the volume change that occurs. Moreover, the local current density can be minimized due to the 3D C-wood framework. Therefore, in symmetric cells, the as-prepared Li/C-wood electrode presents a lower overpotential (90 mV at 3 mA⋅cm-2), more-stable stripping/plating profiles, and better cycling performance (∼150 h at 3 mA⋅cm-2) compared with bare Li metal electrode. Our findings may open up a solution for fabricating stable Li metal anode, which further facilitates future application of high-energy-density Li metal batteries.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Ying
Y
Zhang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Wei
W
Luo
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Chengwei
C
Wang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Yiju
Y
Li
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Chaoji
C
Chen
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Jianwei
J
Song
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Jiaqi
J
Dai
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Emily M
EM
Hitz
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Shaomao
S
Xu
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Chunpeng
C
Yang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Yanbin
Y
Wang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 binghu@umd.edu.
Liangbing
L
Hu
high capacity; lithium metal batteries; low tortuosity; stable cycling; wood channels