Ameliorating lithium deposition regulation via alloying lithiophilic zinc metal for stable lithium metal batteries

Abstract

Metallic lithium is the ideal anode material for high energy–density batteries. However, their practice applications are still hampered by serious challenges, such as lithium dendrites and fragile solid electrolyte interface. In this work, alloying Zn to CuZn was proved to be a multifunctional promising approach via nucleation exploration and simulated calculation, not only ameliorated the nucleation guidance of lithium of Zn elements in effect and durability but also eliminated the alloying disadvantages between Zn and lithium, leading to long-acting uniform lithium deposition. In addition, CuZn alloy clusters modified carbon matrix (cCuZnMOF) was developed by carbonizing multi-core MOF-74, further improving the performances of lithium anodes. As a result, the prepared cCuZnMOF-Li anode showed a long cycle life of over 1050 h at 0.5 mA cm⁻² and 1 mAh cm⁻², and the assembled cCuZnMOF-Li||LiFePO4 cell revealed a capacity retention of 90 % after 600 cycles at 1C.