Engineering Wavy‐Nanostructured Anode Interphases with Fast Ion Transfer Kinetics: Toward Practical Li‐Metal Full Batteries
Weidong Zhang, Zeyu Shen, Siyuan Li, Lei Fan, Xinyang Wang, Fang Chen, Xiaoxian Zang, Tian Wu, Fuyuan Ma, Yingying Lü
Abstract
Abstract Fast Li‐metal depletion and severe anode pulverization are the most critical obstacles for the energy‐dense Li‐metal full batteries using thin Li‐metal anodes (<50 µm). Here, a wavy‐nanostructured solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) with fast ion transfer kinetics is reported, which can promote high‐efficiency Li‐metal plating/stripping (>98% at 4 mAh cm −2 ) in conventional carbonate electrolyte. Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo‐TEM) further reveals the fundamental relationship between wavy‐nanostructured SEI, function, and the electrochemical performance. The wavy SEI with greatly decreased surface diffusion resistance can realize grain coarsening of Li‐metal deposition and exhaustive dissolution of active Li‐metal during the stripping process, which can effectively alleviate “dead Li” accumulation and anode pulverization problems in practical full cells. Under highly challenging conditions (45 µm Li‐metal anodes, 4.3 mAh cm −2 high capacity LiNi 0.8 Mn 0.1 Co 0.1 O 2 cathodes), full cells exhibit significantly improved cycling lifespan (170 cycles; 20 cycles for control cells) via the application of wavy SEI.