Lithiophilic silver nanowires-fenced three-dimensional carbon cloth current collector for dendrite-free lithium deposition

Abstract

Metallic lithium has long been considered as one of the most ideal anode materials for next‐generation high-energy-density Li batteries. However, low safety caused by uncontrollable dendritic lithium growth restricts its practical application. In this work, the lithiophilic Ag nanowires-fenced 3D carbon cloth current collector (Ag NWs/CC) have been developed by facile vacuum filtration. The 3D lithiophilic and porous Ag NWs/CC current collector can effectively reduce the local current density, regulate metal Li nucleation and alleviate the growth of dendritic lithium. As a result, the Ag NWs/CC current collector presents high Coulombic efficiency of >99% after 525 cycles under a current density of 4 mA cm−2 with an areal capacity of 1 mA h cm−2. Furthermore, lithiated Ag NWs/CC electrode were designed by impregnation of molten Li (Ag NWs/CC-MLi). When matching with LiFePO4 (LFP) cathode, the LFP||Ag NWs/CC-MLi full cell exhibits stable cyclic performance with a discharge capacity of 106 mA h g−1 after 8,300 cycles under a high current density of 5 C and outstanding rate performance. This study would pave a facile and effective pathway on designing cost-effective 3D current collector.