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Lithium (Li) metal batteries though with high energy density are still facing issues like Li dendrite growth, dead Li formation, and thick solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation, hindering their long-term stability. Recently, Li-Ag alloys have been reported to potentially address these challenges possibly due to their superior conductivity, lithiophilicity, and mechanical stability. In the pursuit of high-energy-density batteries, Li-Ag alloys typically employ a high Li content phase (γ1). In this study, we applied density functional theory (DFT) calculations to compare the thermodynamic stability, Li adsorption, and Li diffusion of Ag-rich Li-Ag alloy within the γ1 phase (AR-γ1), Ag-poor Li-Ag alloy within the γ1 phase (AP-γ1), and pure Li. AR-γ1 showed better thermodynamic stability and improved Li adsorption and diffusion properties compared to AP-γ1 and pure Li. Electrochemical tests further confirmed the advantages of AR-γ1 in terms of electrode kinetics and cell stability compared to AP-γ1 and pure Li. Our study offers guidance for the selection of the most suitable Li-Ag alloys that can be utilized in high-energy-density lithium batteries.
Huang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.