Scalable slurry-coating induced integrated 3D lithiophilic architecture for stable lithium metal anodes

Abstract

Lithium metal is regarded as a great promising anode for high energy density lithium-based batteries. Yet its practical application is severely restricted by uncontrollable growth of lithium dendrites and resultant potential safety hazard. Herein, an integrated architecture with 3D micro-nano structured Cu skeleton and crosslinked fluorine (F)-doped carbon nanofiber network (MNCu/FC) is constructed as host for lithium metal anode via a facile and scalable slurry-coating method. The conductive 3D architecture built by Cu skeleton and carbon network effectively promotes charge transfer and inhibits Li dendrites growth. Besides, the crosslinked F-doped carbon nanofibers act as lithiophilic seeds to regulate uniform Li nucleation and deposition, and superior lithiophilicity of F-doped carbon nanofiber is demonstrated via density functional theory calculation. As a result, the 3D MNCu/FC facilitates a dendrite-free lithium metal anode with lower lithium nucleation overpotential and enhanced electrochemical performance in half and full cells compared with bare Cu.