Natural Template-Derived 3D Porous Current Collector for Dendrite-free Lithium Metal Battery

Metallic lithium (Li) is an outstanding anode for high-energy storage devices, but dendrite growth impedes its practical application. Herein, similar to molding process of mooncake, a facile strategy of templated etching has been developed to manufacture three dimensional (3D) current collectors with hierarchical pore structures and biomimetic surfaces derived from natural templates. By using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as duplicate templates, 3D surface morphologies of natural surfaces can be printed on Cu foil, and the resuable templates facilitate mass production. By comparison, the 3D porous current collectors largely improve Li deposition behavior and suppress dendrite growth. They exhibit excellent electrochemical performances: high Coulombic efficiency (CE), long life spans of more than 1000 h and good cycling performance. The templated etching method overcomes the energy/time-consuming disadvantages of past pore-creating methods and will boost the commercialization of lithium metal batteries.