Highly lithiophilic ZnO nanosheets decorated Ni foam as a stable host for high-performance lithium metal anodes

Abstract

Uncontrollable dendrite growth and infinite volume expansion in lithium metal anodes results in the severe safety hazards and poor stability. 3D hosts with lithiophilic property are expected to solve the issues. Herein, we proposed a highly lithiophilic ZnO nanosheets array decorated Ni foam (ZnO-NF) as a stable 3D host to inhibit the dendrite formation fabricated by thermal infusion method. The uniformly distributed ZnO nanosheets can improve the lithiophilicity of Ni foam, and regulate Li nucleation, leading to a uniform Li stripping/plating behavior. Additionally, the large surface area of the ZnO-NF framework can reduce local current density and the 3D porous structure can restrain the volume expansion. Compared with the bare Li foils anode, the as-obtained Li@ZnO-NF composite anode exhibits much stable stripping/plating profiles with an ultra-low overpotential (16 mV) for ultralong lifespan (1000 h) at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 in symmetric cell without significant fluctuations. Moreover, remarkable rate capability and long-term cycling stability (80.3% capacity retention after 450 cycles at 1 C) are obtained in full cells paired with a LiFePO4 cathode. This work will provide a new pathway to design the highly lithiophilic host towards high-performance lithium metal anodes.