Serrated lithium fluoride nanofibers-woven interlayer enables uniform lithium deposition for lithium-metal batteries

Shuangshuang Tan; Yalong Jiang; Shuyan Ni; Hao Wang; Fangyu Xiong; Lianmeng Cui; Xuelei Pan; Chen Tang; Yaoguang Rong; Qinyou An; Liqiang Mai

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwac183

Serrated lithium fluoride nanofibers-woven interlayer enables uniform lithium deposition for lithium-metal batteries

Natl Sci Rev. 2022 Sep 1;9(11):nwac183. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwac183. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Authors

Shuangshuang Tan^{1

2}, Yalong Jiang¹, Shuyan Ni¹, Hao Wang¹, Fangyu Xiong¹, Lianmeng Cui¹, Xuelei Pan¹, Chen Tang¹, Yaoguang Rong³, Qinyou An^{1

4}, Liqiang Mai^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
² College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China.
³ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
⁴ Foshan Xianhu Laboratory of the Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Foshan 528200, China.

Abstract

The uncontrollable formation of Li dendrites has become the biggest obstacle to the practical application of Li-metal anodes in high-energy rechargeable Li batteries. Herein, a unique LiF interlayer woven by millimeter-level, single-crystal and serrated LiF nanofibers (NFs) was designed to enable dendrite-free and highly efficient Li-metal deposition. This high-conductivity LiF interlayer can increase the Li⁺ transference number and induce the formation of 'LiF-NFs-rich' solid-electrolyte interface (SEI). In the 'LiF-NFs-rich' SEI, the ultra-long LiF nanofibers provide a continuously interfacial Li⁺ transport path. Moreover, the formed Li-LiF interface between Li-metal and SEI film renders low Li nucleation and high Li⁺ migration energy barriers, leading to uniform Li plating and stripping processes. As a result, steady charge-discharge in a Li//Li symmetrical cell for 1600 h under 4 mAh cm^-2 and 400 stable cycles under a high area capacity of 5.65 mAh cm^-2 in a high-loading Li//rGO-S cell at 17.9 mA cm^-2 could be achieved. The free-standing LiF-NFs interlayer exhibits superior advantages for commercial Li batteries and displays significant potential for expanding the applications in solid Li batteries.

Keywords: LiF interlayer; lithium fluoride; lithium-metal batteries; serrated nanofibers; uniform Li deposition.