Single Zinc Atoms Immobilized on MXene (Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub><i>x</i></sub>) Layers toward Dendrite-Free Lithium Metal Anodes.

Gu, Jianan; Zhu, Qi; Shi, Yongzheng; Chen, Hao; Zhang, Di; Du, Zhiguo; Yang, Shubin · ACS Nano · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Lithium (Li) metal has been considered as one of the most prospective anodes for Li-based batteries owing to its high theoretical gravimetric capacity (3860 mAh g<sup>-1</sup>) and low potential (-3.04 V <i>vs</i> standard hydrogen electrode (SHE)). Unfortunately, there commonly exist uncontrollable dendrites in lithium anodes during the repeated plating-stripping processes, causing short cycle life and even short circuiting of lithium batteries. Here, single zinc atoms immobilized on MXene (Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>Cl<sub><i>x</i></sub>) layers (Zn-MXene) were produced to efficiently induce Li nucleation and growth. At the initial plating stage, lithium tended to nucleate homogeneously on the surface of Zn-MXene layers due to the large presence of Zn atoms and then grow vertically along the nucleated sites owing to a strong lightning rod effect at the edges, affording bowl-like lithium without lithium dendrites. Thus, a low overpotential of 11.3 ± 0.1 mV, long cyclic life (1200 h), and deep stripping-plating levels up to 40 mAh cm<sup>-2</sup> are obtained by using Zn-MXene films as lithium anodes.