An in-situ enabled lithium metal battery by plating lithium on a copper current collector

An in-situ enabled lithium battery (or called a "Li-free" battery) is proposed by using Li-rich Li2CuO2 additive to pre-plate Li metal onto Cu current collector. Conventional Cu foil is unsuitable for efficient Li cycling particularly due to poor adhesion of Li deposits to the Cu substrate and the dendritic deposition nature of Li metal. As a solution to this problem, a very thin Li metal layer is in-situ pre-plated onto the Cu surface and served as the primer layer for next Li cycling in the battery. Results show that the addition of Li2CuO2 not only provides extra Li+ ions for forming a very thin Li primer layer on the Cu current collector but also enhances rate capability of LiNi0.80Mn0.10Co0.10O2 cathode, which is probably because the presence of CuO particles (one of Li2CuO2 decomposition products) increases liquid electrolyte uphold in the cathode.