Few-Layer Graphene Island Seeding for Dendrite-Free Li Metal Electrodes.

Li metal batteries such as Li-air and Li-S systems have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers because of their high energy densities, which are enhanced by the use of Li metal negative electrodes. However, poor cycle efficiency and safety concerns, which are mainly related to dendritic Li growth during cycling, need to be addressed. Here we propose a solution to the Li dendrite problems. We distributed chemically prepared nitrogen-doped few-layer graphene (N-FLG) sheets on Cu substrates to create island structures. The island-type FLG on the Cu electrode was prepared via spin-coating using slurries that included a polymer binder. When the electrode was used for Li deposition, Li ions were first inserted into the graphene layers. Then, Li metal nucleation occurred at the N-FLG sheets owing to their high electrical conductivity; meanwhile, an insulating polymer layer on the Cu prevented the growth of metallic Li there. Lastly, Li metal grew from the edges of N-FLG sheets in both the lateral and vertical direction, and Li metal deposits filled the gaps between the N-FLG islands as well as covering the remainder of the electrode surface. Thus, stable cycling with flat voltage profiles was demonstrated over 100 cycles at a current density of 2 mA cm-2. The materials and electrochemical characterization results highlight the effectiveness of this method, which paves the way for the development of robust, dendrite-free Li metal electrodes.

Effect of multilayer structure on cyclic performance of Si/Fe anode electrode in lithium-ion secondary batteries.

A buffer-strengthened Si/Fe multilayer film, consisting of amorphous silicon layers and polycrystalline Fe layers, is investigated as the anode for Li-ion batteries. This film can achieve a stable cycle-life performance with a high capacity. Decreasing the thickness of the Fe layer can lead to a higher capacity, which is related to the fast transport of the Li ion, but the cyclic performance deteriorates with repeated cycling. In contrast, increasing the thickness of the Fe buffer layers and the number of deposit stacks improves the cycle life with high reversibility. Because of the strain in the Si layers suppressed by the primary multilayer structure, the long-term strength is preserved and the substantial fracture toughness is enhanced by the increasing numbers of effective grain boundaries and interfacial layers. In addition, we demonstrate that the Ti underlayer promotes the electrochemical properties in the Si/Fe multilayer for various Fe layer thicknesses because of the enhanced adhesion of the interfacial electrode and current collector. The mechanically optimized Si/Fe multilayer films can have superior cycle-life performances and higher capacities. Notably, the 16-bilayer deposited electrode exhibits an excellent capacity retention of ~95% with ~204 mAh g(-1) over 300 cycles at a 1 C rate.