Materials-by-Design and Predictive Lifetime Modeling toward Durable Aluminum Foil Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Aluminum, functioning simultaneously as an active material and current collector, presents strong potential for high-energy-density batteries but suffers from rapid capacity fading caused by alloying-induced strain and interfacial instability. This review comprehensively analyzes Al-based anodes in the forms of powders, thin films, and foils, elucidating how processing routes, microstructural features, and prelithiation strategies influence electrochemical behavior. A normalized meta-analysis of reported data highlights intrinsic trade-offs among capacity, Coulombic efficiency, and cycle life. Physics-guided scaling relations are developed to quantitatively link cycle life to volumetric capacity, current density, foil thickness, prelithiation depth, hardness, solute content, and grain size. These correlations establish predictive design rules and performance maps, offering a data-driven framework for engineering durable, high-capacity Al-foil anodes. The insights derived are broadly transferable to the optimization of other metal-foil anodes for next-generation lithium-ion and beyond-lithium battery systems.