Uniform titanium nitride decorated Cu foams by electrophoretic deposition for stable lithium metal anodes

Metallic Li, with ultrahigh theoretical capacity (3860 mA h g −1 ) and the lowest electrochemical potential (−3.04 V vs. the standard hydrogen electrode), is perfectly meet the needs of high energy density lithium batteries. However, the direct use of metallic lithium as anode would cause serious dendrite and huge volume expansion, which will bring safety hazards and restrict the practical commercialization of Li metal anodes. Herein, a facile electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method was employed for the first time to fabricate uniform TiN modified commercial Cu foam (TiN@Cu foam) as the lithiophilic 3D conductive skeleton. The lithiophilic TiN acts as the well-distributed seeds to promote the uniform lithium deposition, attributing to the lowed nucleation overpotential. The porous and conductive Cu foams can further mitigate the formation of Li dendrites, on account of its high specific surface area reduce the effective current density. The TiN@Cu foam based half cells and symmetric cells both exhibit improved reversibility and reduced polarization voltage in lithium plating/stripping process. Furthermore, better rate performance and cycling stability were also achieved in the full-cell configurations of TiN@Cu foam-Li/Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 (LTO) and TiN@Cu foam-Li/LiFePO 4 (LFP). This work demonstrates a facile strategy to modify the commercial current collectors with pre-synthesized lithiophilic nanoparticles for achieving uniform Li deposition. TiN anchored commercial Cu foam (TiN@Cu foam) has been developed via a facile and effective electrophoretic deposition approach. The obtained TiN@Cu foam achieves regulated Li nucleation and guides the lateral Li growth, which mitigate the formation of Li dendrites and improve the cycling stability. The battery performances in the full-cell configurations with LFP or LTO cathodes are also boosted by employing the Li-TiN@Cu foam anodes, demonstrating the potential practical application of the TiN@Cu foam in advanced Li metal batteries. • The uniform TiN modified commercial Cu foam (TiN@Cu foam) is fabricated by a facile Electrophoretic Deposition method. • The lithiophilic TiN can act as the Li nucleation seeds to guide the homogenous Li plating, and facilitate fast Li-ion transport. • TiN@Cu foam based half cells and symmetric cells both exhibit improved reversibility and reduced polarization voltage. • The full cells based on TiN@Cu foam-Li anodes deliver improved rate capability and cycling stability.