Carbon cloth with lithiophilic carbon-coated ZnO nanotubes as anode current collector for hybrid lithium ion/lithium metal battery

Abstract

Reasonable design of light-weight carbon-based current collector is a promising strategy to enable high-energy-density lithium batteries. Herein, carbon-coated ZnO nanotube arrays with good lithiophilicity are constructed on carbon cloth, which is used as anode current collector to construct hybrid lithium ion/lithium metal battery. The modified carbon cloth effectively promotes the formation of robust and inorganic-rich solid electrolyte interphase, which consists of mixed ionic-electronic conductive (MIEC) interface with ion-conductive Li2O/LiC6 and electron-conductive LiZn alloy. Rapid electron/ion transportation during repeated lithium plating/stripping is realized by the Li2O/LiZn/LiC6 MIEC arrays, which homogenizes the lithium deposition and ensures uniform dendrite-free Li deposition. The three-dimensional structure of the current collector also provides enough space to constrain the lithium deposition and avoid the huge volume change. As a result, continuous anode-electrolyte interfacial side reactions and active lithium loss are effectively suppressed. Uniform Li deposition and high average Coulombic efficiency are achieved in the hybrid lithium ion/lithium metal cell. The capacity retention of full cell with carbonate-based electrolyte maintains 47.0 % after 600 cycles, and the full cell also shows superiority in rate performance and energy density. This work provides a promising alternative for light-weight anode current collector to enable high-energy-density lithium batteries.