Lithiophilic silver nanowires-fenced three-dimensional carbon cloth current collector for dendrite-free lithium deposition
Zhongrui Yu, Xiaole Yu, Mengnuo Fu, Jingjing Chen, Dajian Wang, Chenlong Dong, Zhiyong Mao
Abstract
Metallic lithium has long been considered as one of the most ideal anode materials for next‐generation high-energy-density Li batteries . However, low safety caused by uncontrollable dendritic lithium growth restricts its practical application. In this work, the lithiophilic Ag nanowires-fenced 3D carbon cloth current collector (Ag NWs/CC) have been developed by facile vacuum filtration. The 3D lithiophilic and porous Ag NWs/CC current collector can effectively reduce the local current density, regulate metal Li nucleation and alleviate the growth of dendritic lithium. As a result, the Ag NWs/CC current collector presents high Coulombic efficiency of >99% after 525 cycles under a current density of 4 mA cm −2 with an areal capacity of 1 mA h cm −2 . Furthermore, lithiated Ag NWs/CC electrode were designed by impregnation of molten Li (Ag NWs/CC-MLi). When matching with LiFePO 4 (LFP) cathode, the LFP||Ag NWs/CC-MLi full cell exhibits stable cyclic performance with a discharge capacity of 106 mA h g −1 after 8,300 cycles under a high current density of 5 C and outstanding rate performance. This study would pave a facile and effective pathway on designing cost-effective 3D current collector.