Lithiophilic nanowire hosts for dendrite inhibition in Li-metal anodes Syed Abdul Ahad 1 , Shayon Bhattacharya 3 , Seamus Kilian 1 , Michela Ottaviani 1 , Kevin M. Ryan 1 , Tadhg Kennedy 1 , Damien Thompson 2 , Hugh Geaney 1 1 Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland 2 Department of Physics, University of Limerick, Ireland Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) remain the most popular rechargeable battery of our era, but currently facing challenges in meeting the rising energy density demands, for applications like electric vehicles (EVs) [1,2]. To overcome energy density issues in LIBs, Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are gaining renewed interest due to its ability to provide enhanced energy density as compared to the current state-of-the-art LIBs. Li metal is considered the ‘holy grail’ of battery materials specifically due to its high theoretical capacity (3860 mAh g -1 ) and low electrochemical potential (-3.07 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode (SHE)) [3,4]. However, several issues plague the commercialization of LMBs. Some notable problems include the loss of active material (Li), unstable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation, excessive Li dendrite growth causing short-circuits and hazardous fires during battery operation [5]. To overcome the issue of dendrite formation, we will present the design of a hierarchical nanowire (NW) – carbon fiber (CF) host for dendrite-free cycling in LMBs. These lithiophilic nanowires (NWs) were grown on CF hosts via a vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) approach, followed by Li infusion. The NW morphology played a significant role in reducing the local current density on the surface of NW-CF host, thereby inhibiting the dendrite formation. Extensive symmetric cell and full cell testing conducted against LiFePO 4 (LFP) and sulfur cathodes demonstrated superior performance in Li infiltrated NW-CF hosts as compared to pristine Li metal anode. In-depth material and electrochemical characterization, supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, was conducted to examine the role of various lithiated phases in dendrite suppression during electrochemical cycling. The post- mortem imaging of metal anodes shed light on the influence of changing NW composition in achieving long-term cycling characteristics in LMBs. Our findings provide new avenues for the use of lithiophilic NWs to suppress Li dendrite formation, enabling uniform Li deposition for high energy density LMBs. References
1. J. -M. Tarascon, M. Armand, Nature, 2001, 414, 359–367 2. D. Lin, Y. Liu, Y. Cui, Nat. Nanotechnol. 2017, 12, 194. 3. X. B. Cheng, R. Zhang, C. Z. Zhao, Q. Zhang, Chem. Rev. 2017, 117, 10403. 4. J. W. Choi, D. Aurbach, Nat. Rev. Mater. 2016, 1. 5. Y. Guo, H. Li, T. Zhai, Adv. Mater. 2017, 29
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