A Lithium-Metal Anode with Ultra-High Areal Capacity (50 mAh cm−2) by Gridding Lithium Plating/Stripping

ABSTRACT Lithium dendrites, “dead lithium”, infinite volume change and fragile solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) appear indefinitely during Li plating/stripping process, which severely resist the practical application of lithium metal batteries (LMBs). Herein, by a functionalized framework, a phosphorized copper mesh as support skeleton, the lithium plating/stripping has been gridded into zoning effect, thus a desired lithium anode with excellent performance and practical application significance can be achieved. The framework-based lithium anode showed multi-functions with many advantages: enhancing lithium affinity, mitigating volume expansion, improving the current distributions, and inducing uniform deposition of Li+. Thus, a highly reversible and dendrite-free lithium anode under large capacity could be successfully realized, which has been verified by operando optical dynamic test and COMSOL simulation. As expected, symmetric-cell displays low overpotential (~210 mV) at ultra-high current density of 20 mA cm−2 and long lifespan (>1600 h) at ultra-high areal capacity of 50 mAh cm−2, moreover, full-cell delivers high cycling stability (2 C, 500 cycles) and outstanding rate performance with a lower polarization.