Lithium (sodium)-metal batteries are the most promising batteries for next-generation electrical energy storage due to their high volumetric energy density and gravimetric energy density. However, their applications have been prevented by uncontrollable dendrite growth and large volume expansion during the stripping/plating process. To address this issue, the key strategy is to realize uniform lithium (sodium) deposition during the stripping/plating process. Herein, a thin lithiophilic layer consisting of RuO2 particles anchored on brush-like 3D carbon cloth (RuO2 @CC) is prepared by a simple solution-based method. After infusion of Li, the RuO2 @CC transfers to Li-Ru@CC. Ru nanoparticles not only play a role in leading Li+ (Na+ ) to plate on the 3D carbon framework, but also lower local current density because of the good electrical conductivity. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations demonstrate that Ru metal, the reaction product of alkali metal and Ru, can lead Li+ to plate evenly around carbon fiber owing to the strong binding energy with Li+ . The Li-Ru@CC anode shows ultralong cycle life (1500 h at 5 mA cm-2 ). The full cell of Li-Ru@CC|LiFePO4 exhibits lower polarization (90% capacity retention after 650 cycles). In addition, sodium metal batteries based on Na-Ru@CC anodes can achieve similar improvement.
Keywords: RuO2 nanoparticles; dendrites; lithium affinity; lithium metal batteries; stable deposition.
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