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Dendrite growth hinders the practical uses of the lithium metal anode (LMA) toward a high-energy-density battery. From the mechanics perspective, the lithium growth on a solid substrate yields a large strength, leading to a short circuit and worsened nonuniform lithium deposition. Inspired by quicksand in nature, we designed a non-Newtonian shear-thinning LMA. Such a quicksand-like LMA shows flowability under pressure and removes the solid substrate for dendrite growth, effectively releasing the stress in electrodes, especially at large current density and high deposition capacity. As a result, a good cycling performance is realized in symmetric cells even under a high current density of 20 mA cm–2 and a high deposition capacity of 8 mAh cm–2. The assembled Li–LiFePO4 full cells also show a long stable cycling performance under a low N/P ratio. Moreover, the quicksand-like LMA eliminates the inner stress and keeps the integrity during repeated bending, showing potential use in flexible devices.
Zhang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.