A scalable 3D lithium metal anode

A scalable 3D electrode to serve as a lithium metal host is developed to enable stable lithium metal cycling. The electrode is simply fabricated by coating a slurry of well mixed LiNO3, carbon black, and PVDF on the Cu foil. The pores in the electrode serve as lithium metal hosts while the LiNO3 particles act both as a structural skeleton and an electrolyte additive. Micron-level dense Li chunks are deposited into the 3D electrode at a current density of 2 mA cm−2. Moreover, high coulombic efficiencies of 98.4% and 97.1% are achieved in carbonate-based electrolytes at current densities of 0.25 mA cm−2 and 2 mA cm−2, respectively. The 3D electrode is tested in an anode free cell with LiFePO4, which exhibits a good capacity retention of 49.1% after 100 cycles and correspond to an average efficiency of 99.3% per cycle. This work provides a facile and scalable method to fabricate multi-functional 3D electrodes for dendrite-free and high coulombic efficiency Li metal anodes.