Stress-Regulation Design of Lithium Alloy Electrode toward Stable Battery Cycling

Metallic tin(Sn)foil is a promising candidate anode for lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)due to its metallurgical processability and high capacity.However,it suffers low initial Coulombic efficiency and inferior cycling stability due to its uneven alloying/dealloying reactions,large volume change and stress,and fast electrode structural degradation.Herein,we report an undulating LiSn electrode fabricated by a scalable two-step procedure involving mechanical lithography and chemical prelithiation of Sn foil.With the combination of experimental measurements and chemo-mechanical simulations,it was revealed the obtained undulating LiSn/Sn electrode could ensure better mechanical stability due to the pre-swelling state from Sn to Li x Sn and undulating structure of lithography in comparison with plane Sn,homogenize the electrochemical alloying/dealloying reactions due to the activated surface materials,and compensate Li loss during cycling due to the introduction of excess Li from Li_(x)Sn,thus enabling enhanced electrochemical performance.Symmetric cells consisting of undulating LiSn/Sn electrode with an active thickness of∼5 um displayed stable cycling over 1000 h at 1 mA cm^(-2) and 1 mAh cm^(-2) with a low average overpotential of<15 mV.When paired with commercial LiNi_(0.6)Co_(0.2)Mn_(0.2)O_(2)(NCM622)cathode with high mass loading of 15.8 mg cm^(-2),the full cell demonstrated a high capacity of 2.4 mAh cm^(-2) and outstanding cycling stability with 84.9% capacity retention at 0.5 C after 100 cycles.This work presents an advanced LiSn electrode with stress-regulation design toward high-performance LIBs,and sheds light on the rational electrode design and processing of other high-capacity lithium alloy anodes.