A Self-Healing Anode for Li-Ion Batteries by Rational Interface Modification of Room-Temperature Liquid Metal

With the advantage of high energy density, Li-ion batteries (LIBs) have been applied as a popular energy storage system. However, the high-capacity anode (e.g., alloy and Li metals) has problems such as volume expansion and dendrite growth during the cycles, leading to short cyclic life and safety concerns. Benefiting from its room-temperature liquid phase nature, Ga-based liquid metal (LM) or alloys with excellent self-healing ability are promising anodes for achieving LIBs with a long lifespan. Nevertheless, bulk Ga-based LM easily falls off from the current collector because of the high surface energy, which can be effectively ameliorated by the rational interface modification. Herein, the room-temperature eutectic GaIn (EGaIn) nanoparticles with modified surface energies have been used as a stable anode for LIBs, exhibiting a high specific capacity of 542.8 mAh g–1 at 0.1 A g–1 and a high rate capability at 3 A g–1 (380.4 mAh g–1, 70% of the initial capacity). Moreover, the EGaIn nanoparticle anode also shows a stable capacity retention of 90.1% at 1 A g–1 after the stabilizing cycles (from 100 to 800 cycles).