Lithiophilic Ag@CF current collectors enabling dendrite-free Li deposition

Abstract

Non-uniform lithium deposition behavior drives uncontrolled dendritic growth. This study addresses this by modifying a commercial copper foil current collector with a thin silver layer via a simple displacement reaction. The modified current collector exhibited abundant lithium nucleation sites and high lithiophilicity, ensuring controllable lithium nucleation and deposition. The results show that during the initial nucleation stage, silver reacts with deposited lithium to form a LiAg alloy, which regulates subsequent lithium deposition/dissolution processes. In half-cell tests, the modified anode achieved a Coulombic efficiency of 90.24 % after 160 cycles at 1 mA cm⁻² and 1 mAh cm⁻² and symmetric cells demonstrated stable cycling for over 1200 h under the same conditions. Furthermore, full cells retained capacity retention rate of 96.68 % after 100 cycles. This simple and cost-effective method provides a feasible strategy and valuable insights for the scalable production of functionalized anode current collectors.