Lithiophilic Ag Nanoparticle Layer on Cu Current Collector toward Stable Li Metal Anode

Intractable hurdles of low Coulombic efficiency and dendritic Li formation during a repeated deposition/stripping process hinder the commercial use of Li metal anode for next-generation battery systems. Achieving uniform Li nucleation is one of the effective strategies to address these issues, and it is of practical importance to realize this on a commercial Cu current collector that is lithiophobic. Herein, we design a nanostructured Ag lithiophilic layer on a Cu foil via an electroless plating process for a Li metal current collector. The deposition of lithiophilic Ag particles that are homogeneously distributed on the Cu foil can reduce the nucleation overpotential, realizing uniform Li nucleation and subsequently flat Li plating. As a result, a stable cycle stability of up to 360 h (1 mA cm–2) and an average Columbic efficiency of 94.5% for 100 cycles (1 mA cm–2) are achieved. Furthermore, CuAg full cells with LiFePO4 as a cathode exhibit good cycle performances and low polarization voltage. This approach provides another facile way for a stable lithium metal anode.