A Self-Healing Room-Temperature Liquid-Metal Anode for Alkali-Ion Batteries

Given the high energy density, alkali metals are preferred in rechargeable batteries as anodes, however, with significant limitations such as dendrite growth and volume expansion, leading to poor cycle life and safety concerns. Herein a room-temperature liquid alloy system is proposed as a possible solution for its self-recovery property. Full extraction of alkali metal ions from the ternary alloy brings it back to the binary liquid eutectic, and thus enables a self-healing process of the cracked or pulverized structure during cycling. A half-cell discharge specific capacity of up to 706.0 mAh g(-1) in lithium-ion battery and 222.3 mAh g(-1) for sodium-ion battery can be delivered at 0.1C; at a high rate of 5C, a sizable capacity of over 400 mAh g(-1) for Li and 60 mAh g(-1) for Na could be retained. Li and Na ion full cells with considerable stability are demonstrated when pairing liquid metal with typical cathode materials, LiFePO4, and P2-Na-2/3[Ni1/3Mn2/3]O-2. Remarkable cyclic durability, considerable theoretical capacity utilization, and reasonable rate stability present in this work allow this novel anode system to be a potential candidate for rechargeable alkali-ion batteries.