The formation of lithium dendrites induces the notorious safety issue and poor cycling life of energy storage devices, such as lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries. We propose a surface energy model to describe the complex interface between the lithium anode and electrolyte. A universal strategy of hindering formation of lithium dendrites via tuning surface energy of the relevant thin film growth is suggested. The merit of the novel motif lies not only fundamentally a perfect correlation between electrochemistry and thin film fields, but also significantly promotes larger-scale application of lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries, as well as other metal batteries (e.g., Zn, Na, K, Cu, Ag, and Sn).
Keywords: Li‐metal anodes; batteries; energy storage; lithium dendrites; surface energy.