Constructing Lithium-Free Anode/Separator Interface via 3D Carbon Fabric Scaffold for Ultrasafe Lithium Metal Batteries

Metallic lithium represents a promising anode candidate to be utilized in future high-energy lithium batteries.However,the undesirable dendrite growth and fragile solid-electrolyte interphase(SEI)pose critical challenge for pursuing further practical application.In contrast to traditional approaches of using inert/lithiophilicity coating,here,we demonstrate a reverse strategy of introducing a highly conductive and lithophobic carbon fabric(CF)scaffold on lithium foil to guide a favorable nucleation site of lithium far away from the anode/separator interface.The CF scaffold with high conductivity can couple with inner electric field for achieving a uniform distribution of the lithium-ion flux,while the lithophobic feature offers the condition to guide the preferred deposition of lithium onto the underlying lithium foil,which greatly reduces the risk of dendrite-induced short circuits.Moreover,the SEI immersed in the CF scaffold is well supported by CF fibers and therefore exhibits extremely high stability during charge–discharge cycles.As a result,the lithium/CF anodes show>2,000-h stable cycling at 0.5 mA cm−2.Lithium metal batteries equipped with our lithium/CF anode deliver a high capacity retention of~99.99%per cycle,i.e.,retain~97.3%capacity after 200 cycles.The unique interface-regulation strategy is versatile for various conductive scaffolds(e.g.,ultrathin and ultralight conductive fabrics),exhibiting high superiority for highly safe lithium metal batteries.