Lithium Trapping in Microbatteries Based on Lithium- and Cu2O-Coated Copper Nanorods

Microbatteries based on three-dimensional (3D) electrodes composed of thin films of Li and Cu2O coated on Cu nanorod current collectors by electrodeposition and spontaneous oxidation, respectively, are described and characterised electrochemically. High-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM) data indicate that the Li electrodeposition resulted in a homogenous coverage of the Cu nanorods and elemental analyses were also used to determine the amount of lithium in the Li-coated electrodes. The results show that 3D Cu2O/Cu electrodes can be cycled versus 3D Li/Cu electrodes but that the capacity decreased during the cycling due to Li trapping in the Cu current collector of the 3D Li/Cu electrode. These findings highlight the problem of using copper current collectors together with metallic lithium as the formation of a solid solution yields considerable losses of electroactive lithium and hence capacity.