Partly lithiated graphitic carbon foam as 3D porous current collectors for dendrite-free lithium metal anodes

Though lithium (Li) metal is an ideal anode material for next-generation rechargeable batteries, its application has been seriously limited by security and cyclability issues as the result of uncontrollable Li dendrite growth. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a method to suppress Li dendrite growth using melamine-derived 3D porous carbon foam decorated with graphite intercalation compounds of Li (GICs-Li) as a Li host. GICs-Li, with excellent lithiophilicity, ensures uniform Li deposition, while the 3D porous carbon foam, with ultrahigh porosity and enlarged surface area, provides pathway for Li+ transport, accommodates Li deposition as well as reduces practical current density. Thus, dendrite-free morphology of composite Li anode is realized without additional heterogeneous lithiophilic particles. In symmetric cell configuration, the composite Li anode performs stably for 500 cycles at 10 mAcm−2. In full cell configuration with Li4Ti5O12 (LTO), it exhibits a large capacity retention rate (~91%) after 700 cycles at 1.0C.