Mesoporous silica-coated graphene nanosheets for uniform lithium deposition toward stable lithium metal anode

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrate an ideal mesoporous silica-coated graphene nanosheets constructed host for lithium metal anode. In this hybrid anode, the mesoporous silica layers on every graphene nanosheet possess abundant mesopores (3.3 nm), high specific surface area and pore volume. More importantly, the insulating mesoporous silica layers enable the lithium metal to uniformly plate on the graphene inside the nanosheets, thus effectively inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites and volume change. As a consequence, this as-prepared hybrid anode exhibits a relatively low overpotential of less than 12 mV at 1 mA cm−2 and a stable value of 13 mV after 150 cycles.