Designs of Anode-Free Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Anodes equipped with limited lithium offer a way to deal with the increasing market requirement for high-energy-density rechargeable batteries and inadequate global lithium reserves. Anode-free lithium-ion batteries (AFLBs) with zero excess metal could provide high gravimetric energy density and high volumetric energy density. Moreover, the elimination of lithium with a bare current collector on the anode side can reduce metal consumption, simplify the cell technological procedure, and improve manufacturing safety. However, some great challenges, such as insufficient cycling stability, significant lithium dendrite growth, as well as unstable solid electrolyte interface, impede the commercial application of AFLBs. Fortunately, significant progress has been made for AFLBs with enhanced electrode stability and improved cycling performance. This review highlights research on the design of anode-free lithium-ion batteries over the past two decades, presents an overview of the main advantages and limitations of these designs, and provides improvement strategies including the modification of the current collectors, improvement of the liquid electrolytes, and optimization of the cycling protocols. Prospects are also given to broaden the understanding of the electrochemical process, and it is expected that the further development of these designs can be accelerated in both scientific research and practical applications.

A review on the transition from conventional to bipolar designs of anode-less all-solid-state batteries

“…66 The anode-free batteries, particularly Li metal-based, have advantages in terms of the highest retrievable gravimetric/ volumetric energy densities, facile process of the anode coating and reduced maintenance and production costs of cells. 76,77 However, there are issues pertaining to the interfacial contact resistance, curtailed ion pathway and dead lithium formation, which can lead to unsatisfactory cation utilization upon repetitive cycling, and thus, affect the performance badly. Some key strategies and prospective improvement suggestions are listed below for achieving high-performance anode-less batteries: 61 (1) An improved SEI layer in terms of mechanical strength and flexibility is responsible for efficient ion influxes.…”

Developments, Novel Concepts, and Challenges of Current Collectors: From Conventional Lithium Batteries to All‐Solid‐State Batteries

“…Lithium alloy materials, such as tin alloys, aluminium alloys, and others, have been investigated since the early days of Li‐ion battery development, due to their ability to store more lithium per mass and volume than commercial graphite anodes [64–67] . Nowadays, The development of lithium alloy current collectors has further stimulated the potential of AFLBs [10] . As shown in Figure 4 a, Pande et al [68] .…”

“…However, as the mature commercial Li‐ion batteries (LIBs) are approaching their maximum limit of energy density, there is a pressing need for new cell technologies that can meet the growing demands for energy density and power density in today's storage systems [5] . In addition to lithium metal batteries (LMBs) which are undergoing commercialization, advanced lithium‐sulfur batteries (LSBs), lithium‐air batteries (LABs), and anode‐free lithium batteries (AFLBs) have been developed [6–10] . The global market for lithium batteries is expected to experience sustained growth for a considerable period of time, while safety concerns mainly regarding the flammability of the organic liquid electrolytes currently in use have been frequently raised [11] .…”

Thermal gradient strategy to improve seeding for high rate zero excess lithium metal batteries

“…To leverage that energy density as well as overcome the manufacturing issues associated with fabricating and handling thin lithium foils, zero excess lithium cell configurations utilize lithium provided by the cathode as the sole source of lithium inventory in the cell (Qian et al, 2016;Nanda et al, 2020;Hatzell, 2023;Lohrberg et al, 2023). Traditionally, these systems have suffered from short cycle life due to parasitic side reactions that lead to consumption of lithium ion inventory and electrolyte depletion (Liao et al, 2005;Nanda et al, 2020;Zhao et al, 2023). These side reactions are exacerbated by nonuniform lithium deposition at the anode which can also result in safety concerns as volume changes associated with plating and stripping may lead to isolated metallic lithium that contributes to an increased severity of thermal runaway processes.…”