Lithium metal is widely regarded as the "ultimate" anode for energy-dense Li batteries, but its high reactivity and delicate interface make it prone to dendrite formation, limiting its practical use. Inspired by self-assembled monolayers on metal surfaces, we propose a facile yet effective strategy to stabilize Li metal anodes by creating an artificial solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Our method involves dip-coating Li metal in MPDMS to create an SEI layer that is rich in inorganic components, allowing uniform Li plating/stripping under a low overpotential over 500 cycles in carbonate electrolytes. In comparison, pristine Li metal shows a rapid increase in overpotential after merely 300 cycles, leading to failure soon after. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that this uniform artificial SEI suppresses Li dendrite formation. We further demonstrated its enhanced stability pairing with LiFePO 4 and LiNi 1−x−y Co x Mn y O 2 cathodes, highlighting the proposed strategy as a promising solution for practical Li metal batteries.
Separators have an important influence on the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, traditional polyolefin-based separators suffer from poor thermal stability and weak electrolyte wettability. Here, by using hydroxyapatite (HAP) and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) as raw materials, we fabricated a unique HAP/CNF hybrid separator. The separators exhibit excellent thermal properties, with high thermal stability (up to 250 °C) and outstanding flame retardancy. The separators also demonstrate excellent electrolyte wettability. Compared to polypropylene (PP) separators, the HAP/CNF separators show a smaller contact angle with electrolytes, 17.2°for HAP/CNF and 45.5°for PP. Meanwhile, the HAP/ CNF separators illustrate an excellent smoothness of 68.0 nm. In addition, the batteries assembled with the hybrid separators display a better performance compared with the batteries assembled with commercial PP separators. The raw materials are green, and the fabrication processes are free of organic solvents. We envision that the HAP/CNF hybrid separator could be a promising separator candidate for next-generation high-safety and high-performance LIBs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.