Prestoring Lithium into Stable 3D Nickel Foam Host as Dendrite‐Free Lithium Metal Anode

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 27; no. 24
• Main Authors: Chi, Shang‐Sen, Liu, Yongchang, Song, Wei‐Li, Fan, Li‐Zhen, Zhang, Qiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 27.06.2017
• Subjects: Anodes; Batteries; Battery cycles; Dendritic structure; Electric potential; Energy storage; Hysteresis; Infinity; Lithium batteries; lithium dendrites; lithium metal anodes; Materials science; Nickel; nickel foam hosts; Plating; Polarization; Stripping; Surface energy; thermal infusion
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201700348

Lithium metal is considered a “Holy Grail” of anode materials for high‐energy‐density batteries. However, both dendritic lithium deposition and infinity dimension change during long‐term cycling have extremely restricted its practical applications for energy storage devices. Here, a thermal infusion strategy for prestoring lithium into a stable nickel foam host is demonstrated and a composite anode is achieved. In comparison with the bare lithium, the composite anode exhibits stable voltage profiles (200 mV at 5.0 mA cm−2) with a small hysteresis beyond 100 cycles in carbonate‐based electrolyte, as well as high rate capability, significantly reduced interfacial resistance, and small polarization in a full‐cell battery with Li4Ti5O12 or LiFePO4 as counter electrode. More importantly, in addition to the fact that lithium is successfully confined in the metallic nickel foam host, uniform lithium plating/stripping is achieved with a low dimension change (merely ≈3.1%) and effective inhibition of dendrite formation. The mechanism for uniform lithium stripping/plating behavior is explained based on a surface energy model. A Li–Ni composite anode is achieved via a thermal infusion strategy. It exhibits stable voltage profiles (90 mV at 1.0 mA cm−2) with small hysteresis beyond 100 cycles, as well as low dimension change and effective dendrite inhibition after 100 cycles in a symmetric cell.