Improved lithium deposition on silver plated carbon fiber paper

Abstract Lithium metal is a promising anode material for its low redox potential and high theoretical specific capacity. However, issues such as dendritic growth, unstable interface and low coulombic efficiency hinder its practical applications. Construction of a porous current collector is supposed to be an effective way to address these issues and improve the cycling performances of the lithium metal battery. In this paper, commercial carbon fiber paper is used as a porous current collector for the lithium deposition, on which nanosized silver particles are plated beforehand by the silver mirror reaction. The lithiophilic silver particles alloy with the lithium and guide the subsequent lithium plating on the carbon fibers, effectively reducing the nucleation overpotential. Even at a current density of 0.5 mA cm−2, the overpotential of the lithium nucleation can still be as low as ~21 mV. The silver particles pinned on the carbon fibers ensure the stable electrochemical cycling of the lithium plating/stripping. These prove the feasibility of using the silver-plated carbon fiber paper as a porous current collector of the lithium anode with high energy conversion efficiency and long cycling lifespan. This designing idea is of great significance for the development of the lithium metal anodes.