Ag Plumes Grown on Cu for Li-Lean Anode of High Energy Density Li-Metal Batteries

Li metal combines the advantages of low redox potentialand hightheoretical specific capacity, being an ideal candidate anode forhigh energy density secondary batteries. However, Li-metal anode tendsto grow dendrites that are highly reactive to electrolyte and causeissues such as fast capacity decaying and safety risk. To addressthese issues, we propose a Li-lean anode featuring Ag plumes on Cusubstrate. The Ag plumes are grown on Cu substrate by immersing Cufoil in AgF aqueous solution, and the Li-lean anode is fabricatedby depositing Li on the grown Ag plumes. Thanks to the large specificsurface area and the low Li depositing/stripping overpotential ofthe Ag plumes, the as-fabricated Li-lean anode allows the cell tomatch with LiFePO4 cathode with excellent cyclic stability.Compared with the bare Cu electrode, the as-fabricated Li-lean anodeimproves the capacity retention of the cell with a LFP loading of0.4 mAh cm(-2) from 9 to 81% after 300 cycles at 1C between 2.0 and 4.0 V. The facile formation of Ag plumes makes itpossible for high energy density Li-metal batteries to be appliedin a large scale.