Structural Evolution upon Delithiation/Lithiation in Prelithiated Foil Anodes: A Case Study of AgLi Alloys with High Li Utilization and Marginal Volume Variation

Dealloying is a powerful technology to fabricate nanoporous materials with tunable structures and compositions for battery applications. Meanwhile, electrochemical dealloying is an intrinsic process for metal anodes that exhibits fundamental correlations with electrode morphologies and structures. In this work, Li-Ag composites are fabricated as a case study to understand the spontaneous structural evolution and the in situ formation of nanoporosity during a reversible lithiation/delithiation process. The rationally designed nanoporous AgLi (NPAgLi) framework with limited Li capacity (10 mAh cm(-2)) enables a dendrite-free anode with marginal volume variation upon long-term cycling, which can be attributed to the spatially confined reaction pattern along with efficient Li alloying/dealloying. Furthermore, full cell tests reveal the NPAgLi anode remains stable under practical conditions such as lean electrolyte (15 mu L), large areal capacity (1.6 mAh cm(-2)), and high-loading cathode (12 mg cm(-2)). This work provides new perspectives on the in situ structural evolution of Li-rich alloy electrodes and the results are expected to contribute to the development of alkali metal anodes.

Automated summary

This study investigates the structural evolution and stability of nanoporous materials in lithium-ion batteries using Li-Ag composites as a case study. The results show that the rationally designed nanoporous AgLi framework can achieve dendrite-free anodes with stable electrochemical performance.