Three-dimensional MOF-derived host with surface-preferred and spatial-selective effect for dendrite-free lithium metal battery

Abstract

The large-scale applications of lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are still impeded by the unsatisfactory electrochemical performance of Li metal anode associated with the infinite volumetric change and the uncontrollable Li dendrite growth. Herein, free-standing and robust nitrogen-doped 3D porous carbon nanofibers networks embedded with Zn-carbon hybrid nanocages are obtained as stable hosts for guiding uniform Li nucleation and accommodating volume expansion. Benefiting from the reduced local current density and abundant lithiophilic sites with low nucleation barriers, the as-prepared NCNFs-Zn-CCs electrode can achieve a low overpotential of 20 mV at 3 mA cm−2 and a stable Li plating/stripping process for 3200 h were achieved in symmetric cells. This work opens a new avenue to explore and broaden the applications of lithiophilic carbon materials in next-generation lithium metal batteries with excellent cycling stability and rate performance.