Revitalizing dendritic lithium with atomic modulator-decorated suspension electrolyte for durable lithium metal batteries.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 42172333.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aef9111 and PMC identifier 13196776.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Lithium metal anodes suffer from dendrite growth, unstable solid electrolyte interphase, and "dead Li" owing to high barriers and inhomogeneous Li<sup>+</sup> desolvation/diffusion kinetics. Here, we present the suspension electrolyte endowed with atom-level catalytic inorganic particles of single atomic cobalt on defect-rich ZnO<sub>1-<sub><i>x</i></sub></sub> nanoparticles (SACo@ZO) in a carbonate-based electrolyte, enhancing desolvation/diffusion kinetics and revitalizing dendritic Li. As systematically investigated by in situ electrochemical sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy together with theoretical simulations, the SACo@ZO-assisted suspension electrolyte decreases the potential threshold down to 20 millivolts for driving interfacial desolvation rapidly, providing uniform solvation-free Li<sup>+</sup>/Li<sup>0</sup> flux and capability in revitalizing dendritic Li. Consequently, we achieve a smooth but dense Li plating behavior under room or low-temperature surroundings, lasting for a long life span of 1600 hours. Meanwhile, the practical Li-LiFePO<sub>4</sub> cell with SACo@ZO reserves the capacity retention of ~100% at 0.5 C and survives for 1000 cycles under 0°C, demonstrating the feasibility of atomically catalytic suspension electrolyte for high-performance dendrite-free Li metal batteries.