Coating highly lithiophilic Zn on Cu foil for high-performance lithium metal batteries

Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are ideal candidates for next-generation high energy density energy storage systems. However, uncontrollable growth of Li dendrites due to uneven Li plating has restricted the practical application of the Li metal anode. Here, we develop a highly lithiophilic Zn coating on commercial Cu foil as a substrate for Li metal anode to settle above issues. We find that the lithiophilic nature of Zn can facilitate homogeneous nucleation and deposition of Li on Cu current collector surface. In addition, the uniform Zn coating can not only decrease the nucleation overpotential but also regulate the electric field distribution. Benefiting from the coated Zn layer, the designed anode for half-cell and full-cell tests shows better electrochemical performances compared with the untreated Cu foil. This work provides a simple and effective way to enable a promising dendrite-free lithium metal anode for large-scale industrial applications.Graphical abstract