Engineering

Lithium (medication)

Lithium vanadium phosphate battery

Biology

Metallurgy

Materials science

Lithium fluoride

Dendrite (mathematics)

Endocrinology

Interphase

Inorganic chemistry

Chemical engineering

Geology

Lithium metal

Physical chemistry

Genetics

Mathematics

Geometry

Plating (geology)

Medicine

Chemistry

Geophysics

Electrode

Anode

Electrolyte

Nature Communications

Lithium metal anodes have attracted extensive attention owing to their high theoretical specific capacity. However, the notorious reactivity of lithium prevents their practical applications, as evidenced by the undesired lithium dendrite growth and unstable solid electrolyte interphase formation. Here, we develop a facile, cost-effective and one-step approach to create an artificial lithium metal/electrolyte interphase by treating the lithium anode with a tin-containing electrolyte. As a result, an artificial solid electrolyte interphase composed of lithium fluoride, tin, and the tin-lithium alloy is formed, which not only ensures fast lithium-ion diffusion and suppresses lithium dendrite growth but also brings a synergistic effect of storing lithium via a reversible tin-lithium alloy formation and enabling lithium plating underneath it. With such an artificial solid electrolyte interphase, lithium symmetrical cells show outstanding plating/stripping cycles, and the full cell exhibits remarkably better cycling stability and capacity retention as well as capacity utilization at high rates compared to bare lithium.

Fluorinated hybrid solid-electrolyte-interphase for dendrite-free lithium deposition