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Coating highly lithiophilic Zn on Cu foil for high-performance lithium metal batteries

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Abstract

Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are ideal candidates for next-generation high energy density energy storage systems. However, uncontrollable growth of Li dendrites due to uneven Li plating has restricted the practical application of the Li metal anode. Here, we develop a highly lithiophilic Zn coating on commercial Cu foil as a substrate for Li metal anode to settle above issues. We find that the lithiophilic nature of Zn can facilitate homogeneous nucleation and deposition of Li on Cu current collector surface. In addition, the uniform Zn coating can not only decrease the nucleation overpotential but also regulate the electric field distribution. Benefiting from the coated Zn layer, the designed anode for half-cell and full-cell tests shows better electrochemical performances compared with the untreated Cu foil. This work provides a simple and effective way to enable a promising dendrite-free lithium metal anode for large-scale industrial applications.

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摘要

锂金属电池被以为是下一代高能量密度储能系统的理想候选者。然而, 由于镀锂不均匀而导致的锂枝晶的不可控生长限制了金属锂阳极的实际应用。在此, 我们在商用铜箔上开发了一种高亲锂性的锌涂层作为金属锂阳极的基底, 以解决上述问题。我们发现, 锌的亲锂性可以促进锂在铜集电体表面的均匀成核和沉积。此外, 均匀的锌涂层不仅可以降低成核过电位, 还可以调节电场分布。受益于涂层的锌层, 设计的阳极在半电池和全电池测试中与未处理的铜箔相比显示出更好的电化学性能。这项工作为大规模工业应用提供了一种简单而有效的方法来实现有前途的无枝晶金属锂阳极。

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1904216, 51771236 and 51901249), the Innovation-Driven Project of Central South University (No. 2020CX007) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (No. 2020JJ5719).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Yun-Xiong Song & Xiao-Ping Ouyang

  2. State Key Laboratory for Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Wei-Yi Lu, Yue-Jiao Chen, Hao Yang, Chen Wu, Wei-Feng Wei & Li-Bao Chen

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  1. Yun-Xiong Song
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Correspondence to Li-Bao Chen or Xiao-Ping Ouyang.

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Song, YX., Lu, WY., Chen, YJ. et al. Coating highly lithiophilic Zn on Cu foil for high-performance lithium metal batteries. Rare Met. 41, 1255–1264 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-021-01811-3

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