posted on 2022-12-15, 17:15authored bySijia Li, Jianyu Chen, Guanyu Liu, Hanbo Wu, Huanran Chen, Mingshi Li, Li Shi, Yizhou Wang, Yanwen Ma, Jin Zhao
Using porous copper (Cu) as the host is one of the most
effective
approaches to stabilize Li metal anodes. However, the most widely
used porous Cu hosts usually account for the excessive mass proportion
of composite anodes, which seriously decreases the energy density
of Li metal batteries. Herein, an ultralight porous Cu nanowire aerogel
(UP-Cu) is reported as the Li metal anode host to accommodate a high
mass loading of Li content of 77 wt %. Specifically, the Li/UP-Cu
electrode displays a satisfactory gravimetric capacity of 2715 mAh
g–1, which is higher than that of the most reported
Li metal composite anodes. The UP-Cu host achieves a high Coulombic
efficiency of ∼98.9% after 250 cycles in the half cell and
exceptional electrochemical stability under high-current-density and
deep-plating-stripping conditions in the symmetrical cell. The Li/UP-Cu|LiFePO4 battery displays a specific capacity of 102 mAh g–1 at 5 C for 5000 cycles. The Li/UP-Cu|LiFePO4 pouch cell
achieves a significantly high capacity of 146.3 mAh g–1 with a high capacity retention of 95.83% for 360 cycles. This work
provides a lightweight porous host to stabilize Li-metal anodes and
maintain their high mass-specific capacity.