A review of concepts and contributions in lithium metal anode development

Using lithium (Li) directly as metal anode for a higher energy density battery is one of the most attractive battery researches in the past decade. To address its intrinsic issues including uncontrolled growth of Li dendrites and unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), which are believed as the main origins of safety issues and short lifetime, proposing the groundbreaking concepts and contributing valuable improvements in the development of Li metal anodes (LMAs) have always been the mandate of all battery scientists. This review presents a historical framework of various concepts and contributions in enabling LMAs to be applied practically. We begin with an overview of these important concepts and breakthroughs in different aspects to advance LMAs. Moreover, assisted by the big data sources from Web of Science, the major contributions from institutions, journals, corresponding authors, and highly cited papers are discussed and summarized. Finally, future trends and challenges are concluded for designing an ideal LMA. We hope that such as a comprehensive evolutionary story of LMAs can motivate more researchers to pave the way for high-energy lithium metal batteries (LMBs) in the future.