Bio-inspired low-tortuosity carbon host for high-performance lithium-metal anode

Yi-Chen Yin; Zhi-Long Yu; Zhi-Yuan Ma; Tian-Wen Zhang; Yu-Yang Lu; Tao Ma; Fei Zhou; Hong-Bin Yao; Shu-Hong Yu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwy148

Bio-inspired low-tortuosity carbon host for high-performance lithium-metal anode

Natl Sci Rev. 2019 Mar;6(2):247-256. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwy148. Epub 2018 Nov 26.

Authors

Yi-Chen Yin¹, Zhi-Long Yu¹, Zhi-Yuan Ma¹, Tian-Wen Zhang², Yu-Yang Lu³, Tao Ma², Fei Zhou², Hong-Bin Yao^{1

2}, Shu-Hong Yu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Hefei Science Center of CAS, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
² Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.

Abstract

Lithium metal is one of the most promising anode materials for high-energy-density Li batteries. However, low stability caused by dendrite growth and volume change during cycling hinders its practical application. Herein, we report an ingenious design of bio-inspired low-tortuosity carbon with tunable vertical micro-channels to be used as a host to incorporate nanosized Sn/Ni alloy nucleation sites, which can guide Li metal's plating/stripping and meanwhile accommodate the volume change. The pore sizes of the vertical channels of the carbon host can be regulated to investigate the structure-performance correlation. After compositing Li, the bio-inspired carbon host with the smallest pore size (∼14 μm) of vertical channels exhibits the lowest overpotential (∼18 mV at 1 mA cm^-2), most stable tripping/plating voltage profiles, and best cycling stability (up to 500 cycles) in symmetrical cells. Notably, the carbon/Li composite anode is more rewarding than Li foil when coupled with LiFePO₄ in full cells, exhibiting a much lower polarization effect, better rate capability and higher capacity retention (90.6% after 120 cycles). This novel bio-inspired design of a low-tortuosity carbon host with nanoalloy coatings may open a new avenue for fabricating advanced Li-metal batteries with high performance.

Keywords: bio-inspiration; lithium metal; low-tortuosity carbon host; micro-channels; nucleation sites.