Integrative design of laser-induced graphene array with lithiophilic MnOx nanoparticles enables superior lithium metal batteries

Abstract

The practical applications of lithium metal batteries are limited by uncontrolled dendrite growth during cycling. Herein, we propose a simple and scalable approach to stabilize lithium metal anodes using laser scribing technology to integratively design and construct a laser-induced graphene (LIG) with lithiophilic metal oxide nanoparticles. The porous LIG and lithiophilic MnO_x nanoparticles effectively reduce the nucleation overpotential of Li and regulate uniform Li plating, while the array structure offers continuous and ultra-fast ion/electron transport channels, accelerating Li⁺ transport kinetics at high rate and high capacity. Consequently, the Li@MnO_x@LIG-a anode exhibits superior rate capability of up to 40 ​mA ​cm⁻² with low nucleation overpotential. It also can withstand ultra-high Li capacity to 20 mAh cm⁻² without dendrite growth and stably cycle for 3000 ​h with 100% depth of discharge at 40 ​mA ​cm⁻². More importantly, this technology can be expanded to other metal oxides for various metal batteries.