High-capacity, low-tortuosity, and channel-guided lithium metal anode
Edited by Thomas E. Mallouk, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and approved February 17, 2017 (received for review November 15, 2016)
Significance
Li metal is considered as the “Holy Grail” anode for Li batteries due to its highest theoretical capacity and lowest electrochemical potential. However, the infinite volume change during the Li stripping/plating process would lead to issues like solid electrolyte interphase cracks and Li dendrites. This work describes a high-capacity and low-tortuosity Li metal anode, which was prepared by infusing molten Li into carbonized wood channels. The straight channels of carbonized wood acting as an ideal host can effectively accommodate the Li volume change, which delivered a lower overpotential and better cycling performance compared with bare Li metal. This work demonstrated the importance of structure design, especially low-tortuosity Li metal structure, for enabling Li metal anode in high-energy batteries.
Abstract
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.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge support from US Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy Project (DE-AR 0000726). This work was also supported as part of the Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award DESC0001160. Y.Z. acknowledges the China Scholarship Council (CSC 201506680044) for financial support. The authors also thank the Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University for support.
Supporting Information
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Movie S1.
Fast Li infusion into ZnO-coated C-wood. The infusion process of molten Li metal into C-wood occurred in less than 1 s. The fast process is mainly attributed to the favorable reaction between Li metal and ZnO and the capillary force on lithiophilic surface as driving force.
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Published online: March 20, 2017
Published in issue: April 4, 2017
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge support from US Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy Project (DE-AR 0000726). This work was also supported as part of the Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award DESC0001160. Y.Z. acknowledges the China Scholarship Council (CSC 201506680044) for financial support. The authors also thank the Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University for support.
Notes
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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