Nanoscale material design of LiAl and LiZn alloy interlayers by room temperature sputtering deposition technique

Lithium metal is one of the most superior negative electrodes in electrochemical energy storage devices. However, lithium dendrite formation and infinite dimensional change are plaguing its applications. To solve these problems, effective and straightforward lithium-surface modification methods are needed. Herein, we propose a nanoscale material design to control and tune the Li surface trough lithium-aluminium (Li_1-xAl_x) and lithium-zinc (Li_1-xZn_x) alloy layers formation, by means of room temperature sputtering deposition. Upon depositing pure Al or Zn onto self-standing Li foils, we found that the alloy layers are naturally forming, with no need of any post-deposition thermal or electrochemical process. Compared to Li–Li_1-xAl_x and Li–Li_1-xZn_x produced via conventional chemical immersion methods, the sputtered samples exhibit superior control over alloy thickness, morphology, composition, and purity. We envision a wide application potential, since we succeed in engineering Li-electrode surfaces through a simple and scalable method, which would advance the potential applications of Li-metal-based systems.