Graphene nested porous carbon current collector for lithium metal anode with ultrahigh areal capacity

Abstract

Li metal is regarded as the ultimate anode material for high energy density lithium-ion battery. Practical utilization of Li metal anode requires excellent electrochemical reversibility of metallic Li under high charge/discharge depth, however, high areal capacity of Li metal anode is usually accompanied by the formation of large amounts of irreversible Li composites and low Coulombic efficiency. To solve this problem, herein, we propose a novel graphene nested carbon fiber cloth current collector with surface decoration by lithiophilic seeds for metallic lithium anode, which is able to sustain long-term (over 1500 h) reversible stripping/plating of Li metal under ultrahigh areal capacity (12.0 mAh cm−2). This elaborately designed current collector combines the advantages of powerful electrical conductive network, abundant deposition sites for Li and strong surface affinity with Li, which synergistically gives rise to unprecedented electrochemical performance of metallic lithium anode, and promises the application of Li metal in high-energy density batteries.