Redistributing Li-Ion Flux by Parallelly Aligned Holey Nanosheets for Dendrite-Free Li Metal Anodes

Abstract

Li metal is the most ideal anode material to assemble rechargeable batteries with high energy density. However, nonuniform Li-ion flux during repeated Li plating and stripping leads to continuous Li dendrite growth and dead Li formation, which causes safety risks and short lifetime and thus impedes the commercialization of Li metal batteries. Here, parallelly aligned holey nanosheets on a Li metal anode are reported to simultaneously redistribute the Li-ion flux in the electrolyte and in the solid-electrolyte interphase, which allows uniform Li-ion distribution as well as fast Li-ion diffusion for reversible Li plating and stripping. With holey MgO nanosheets as an example, the protected Li anodes achieve Coulombic efficiency of approximate to 99% and ultralong-term reversible Li plating/stripping over 2500 h at a high current density of 10 mA cm(-2). A full-cell battery, using the protected anode, a 4 V Li-ion cathode, and a commercial carbonate electrolyte, shows capacity retention of 90.9% after 500 cycles.