Integrated Porous Cu Host Induced High-Stable Bidirectional Li Plating/Stripping Behavior for Practical Li Metal Batteries

The double-sided electrodes with active materials are widely used for commercial lithium (Li) ion batteries with a higher energy density. Accordingly, developing an anode current collector that can accommodate the stable and homogeneous Li plating/stripping on both sides will be highly desired for practical Li metal batteries (LMBs). Herein, an integrated bidirectional porous Cu (IBP-Cu) film with a through-pore structure is fabricated as Li metal hosts using the powder sintering method. The resultant IBP-Cu current collector with tunable pore volume and size exhibits high mechanical flexibility and stability. The bidirectional and through-pore structure enables the IBP-Cu host to achieve homogeneous Li deposition and effectively suppresses the dendritic Li growth. Impressively, the as-fabricated Li/IBP-Cu anode exhibits a remarkable capacity of up to 7.0 mAh cm(-2) for deep plating/stripping, outstanding rate performance, and ultralong cycling ability with high Coulombic efficiency of approximate to 100% for 1000 cycles. More practicably, a designed pouch cell coupled with one Li/IBP-Cu anode and two LiFePO4 cathodes exhibits a highly elevated energy density (approximate to 187.5%) compared with a pouch cell with one anode and one cathode. Such design of a bidirectional porous Cu current collector with stable Li plating/stripping behaviors suggests its promising practical applications for next-generation Li metal batteries.

Automated summary

A bidirectional porous Cu current collector was developed in this study, showing stable Li plating and stripping behaviors for practical Li metal batteries. The current collector demonstrated high capacity, outstanding cycling performance, and elevated energy density, suggesting promising applications for future Li metal batteries.