Constructing Three-Dimensional Flexible Lithiophilic Scaffolds with Bi<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> Nanosheets toward Stable Li Metal Anodes
Yaya Wang, Meng Wang, Jiang Zhong, Shengyang Li, Song Chen, Hongli Deng, Lei Wang, Lin Mei, Jian Zhu, Bingan Lu
Abstract
The practical application of lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is obstructed by the uncontrollable dendrite growth and large volume change. Herein, we construct a flexible carbon cloth modified with Bi2O3 nanosheets (Bi2O3/CC) as a three-dimensional (3D) lithiophilic skeleton to regulate uniform Li nucleation and deposition. Benefiting from the initial lithiation, dense lithiophilic Li3Bi layers with lithium conductor Li2O (Li3Bi/Li2O) are in-situ-formed through conversion and alloying reactions, which can promote adsorption ability of lithium and improve the speed of Li+ transport according to DFT calculations, thus boosting homogeneous Li plating/stripping behavior. Meanwhile, the conductive 3D structure effectively suppresses Li dendrite formation by reducing the local current density and eliminates volume change. Consequently, the Bi2O3/CC facilitates a high Coulombic efficiency and dendrite-free morphology, near-zero volume change, and superior cyclic stability over 2400 h at 1 mA cm–2 with an ultralow overpotential of 11 mV. Notably, there is no obvious dendritic morphology in Bi2O3/CC even under an ultrahigh areal capacity of 20 mAh cm–2. Moreover, the Li@Bi2O3/CC-LiFePO4 full cell also achieves outstanding cycling performance and rate capability, shedding light on the facile design of the 3D lithiophilic host for advanced lithium-metal anodes.