Elemental Foil Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Alloying anodes represent a promising class of material for enabling increased energy density for lithium-ion batteries. However, most research in this space has focused upon the development of powders for use in blade-cast anodes. In this work, we develop a robust framework for understanding the implementation of alloying materials as foil anodes, surveying the full range of elemental metals to identify viable materials systems, and contextualizing their potential impact on performance. Aluminum, indium, tin, and lead are highlighted as promising candidates for direct use as active materials, with each offering the potential for a 40–50% improvement in energy density over graphite-based systems. Interestingly, aluminum, tin, and indium offer not only high capacities but also display remarkable formation efficiencies ranging from 90 to 98%. The stability of each material was also benchmarked across a range of utilizations, laying the groundwork for future efforts in designing stable foil anodes for high-energy-density batteries.