Lithium metal with high theoretical capacity (3860 mAh/g) and low operational voltage (-3.04 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode) reflects to be one of the most high energy density anodes for energy storage devices. While, its high chemical activity to continuously react with electrolytes causing low coulombic efficiency and formation of lithium dendrites leading safety concern limits practical applications. To conquer these challenges, amorphous Li 3 PO 4 thin films with thickness of 0-200 nm are directly coated on the surface of Li metal foil via magnetron sputtering. The as-prepared Li 3 PO 4 has almost insulated property with electronic conductivity of 1.4×10 -10 S/cm and ionic conductivity of 2.8×10 -8 S/cm. The conformal coating layer Li 3 PO 4 can successfully suppress the lithium dendrites growth and improve its life span. The remarkable improvements of the Li 3 PO 4 -coated Li electrodes are mainly attributed to high chemical stability as well as amorphous nature of Li 3 PO 4 , which leads layer-by-layer growth Li film rather than islands form dendrites.
The systematic investigation of RNO3 salts (R = Li, Na, K, and Cs) as electrolyte additives was carried out for lithium-battery systems. For the first time, the abundant and extremely available KNO3 was proved to be an excellent alternative of LiNO3 for suppression of the lithium dendrites. The reason was ascribed to the possible synergetic effect of K(+) and NO3(-) ions: The positively charged K(+) ion could surround the lithium dendrites by electrostatic attraction and then delay their further growth, while simultaneously the oxidative NO3(-) ion could be reduced and subsequently profitable to the reinforcement of the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI). By adding KNO3 into the practical Li-S battery, the discharging capacity was enhanced to average 687 mAh g(-1) from the case without KNO3 (528 mAh g(-1)) during 100 cycles, which was comparable to the one with the well-known LiNO3 additive (637 mAh g(-1)) under the same conditions.
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