Infiltrating lithium into carbon cloth decorated with zinc oxide arrays for dendrite-free lithium metal anode

• Published in: Nano research 2019-03, Vol.12 (3), p.525-529
• Main Authors: Wang, Xianshu, Pan, Zhenghui, Wu, Yang, Ding, Xiaoyu, Hong, Xujia, Xu, Guoguang, Liu, Meinan, Zhang, Yuegang, Li, Weishan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anodes; Arrays; Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Batteries; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Carbon; Carbon fibers; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cloth; Condensed Matter Physics; Cycles; Dendrites; Dendritic structure; Electric potential; Lithium; Materials Science; Metals; Nanotechnology; Research Article; Short circuits; Voltage; Zinc oxide; Zinc oxides
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-018-2245-z

Lithium metal anode for batteries has attracted extensive attentions, but its application is restricted by the hazardous dendritic Li growth and dead Li formation. To address these issues, a novel Li anode is developed by infiltrating molten Li metal into conductive carbon cloth decorated with zinc oxide arrays. In carbonate-based electrolyte, the symmetric cell shows no short circuit over 1,500 h at 1 mA·cm −2 , and stable voltage profiles at 3 mA·cm −2 for ∼ 300 h cycling. A low overpotential of ∼ 243 mV over 350 cycles at a high current density of 10 mA·cm −2 is achieved, compared to the seriously fluctuated voltage and fast short circuit in the cell using bare Li metal. Meanwhile, the asymmetric cell withstands 1,000 cycles at 10 C (1 C = 167 mAh·g −1 ) compared to the 210 cycles for the cell using bare Li anode. The excellent performance is attributed to the well-regulated Li plating/stripping driven from the formation of LiZn alloy on the wavy carbon fibers, resulting in the suppression of dendrite growth and pulverization of the Li electrode during cycling.