Facile Chemical Fabrication of a Three-Dimensional Copper Current Collector for Stable Lithium Metal Anodes

Construction of three-dimensional (3D) Cu current collectors is a promising approach to improving the stability of Li metal batteries. Although many efforts have yielded fruitful results, most of them are complex, subtle, and involve high energy consumption. We present a facile chemical fabrication of a 3D current collector which offers the advantages of rapid and low cost assembly by Cu fibers. A skeleton host with a high surface activity can significantly suppress Li dendrite growth and improve the electrochemical deposition behavior of Li. Up to 7 mAh cm−2 of Li can be plated in the 3D Cu current collector without dendrite generation. Cells based on 3D Cu collectors achieved a high average Coulombic efficiency of 97% over 160 cycles (50 cycles for planar Cu) and a long cycle life of more than 900 h at 1 mA cm−2. Moreover, full cells assembled with Li-plated 3D Cu anodes and LiFePO4 cathodes displayed impressive cycling stability and rate capability at a high rate of 4C.