Lithium-coated polymeric matrix as a minimum volume-change and dendrite-free lithium metal anode

By Yayuan Liu, Dingchang Lin, Zheng Liang, Jie Zhao, Kai Yan, Yi Cui. Nature Communications, 2016

810 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Lithium metal is the ideal anode for the next generation of high-energy-density batteries. Nevertheless, dendrite growth, side reactions and infinite relative volume change have prevented it from practical applications. Here, we demonstrate a promising metallic lithium anode design by infusing molten lithium into a polymeric matrix. The electrospun polyimide employed is stable against highly reactive molten lithium and, via a conformal layer of zinc oxide coating to render the surface lithiophilic, molten lithium can be drawn into the matrix, affording a nano-porous lithium electrode. Importantly, the polymeric backbone enables uniform lithium stripping/plating, which successfully confines lithium within the matrix, realizing minimum volume change and effective dendrite suppression. The porous electrode reduces the effective current density; thus, flat voltage profiles and stable cycling of more than 100 cycles is achieved even at a high current density of 5 mA cm−2 in both carbonate and ether electrolyte. The advantages of the porous, polymeric matrix provide important insights into the design principles of lithium metal anodes. Lithium metal is a promising anode for batteries, but problems such as volume change and dendrite growth currently prevent it from practical usage. Here, the authors overcome these problems by infusing molten lithium into a polymeric matrix via a lithiophilic coating to make a stable nanoporous lithium electrode.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0da845a9f8029ce9d2a82fbc80c8033fe60524e9

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Automotive Engineering

1. Yi Cui
2. Xueliang Sun
3. Yayuan Liu
4. Yuzhang Li
5. Hansen Wang
6. Allen Pei
7. Dingchang Lin
8. David G. Mackanic

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. Yi Cui
2. Xueliang Sun
3. Allen Pei
4. Yayuan Liu
5. Hansen Wang
6. Yuzhang Li
7. Dingchang Lin
8. Jiangyan Wang

Citations in the corpus

• Surface engineering of commercial Ni foams for stable Li metal anodes (2019, background): “There are a number of strategies that are 33 proposed to mitigate these problems in LMAs, includ ing adding electrolyte additives 34 to generate a highly stable solid electrolyte inter face (SEI) film[5, 6], constructing 35 artificial SEI films to protect Li metal against li quid organic electrolyte”
• Honeycomb-like porous 3D nickel electrodeposition for stable Li and Na metal anodes (2018, methodology): “There are many approaches undertaken including Li metal electrodes with engineered surfaces [10-15] and structures [16-24], structured current”