Tuning wettability of molten lithium via a chemical strategy for lithium metal anodes

Shu-Hua Wang, Junpei Yue, Wei Dong, Tong-Tong Zuo, Jin-Yi Li, Xiaolong Liu, Xu-Dong Zhang, Lin Liu, Ji-Lei Shi, Ya-Xia Yin and Yu-Guo Guo ()
Additional contact information
Shu-Hua Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Junpei Yue: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Wei Dong: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Tong-Tong Zuo: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Jin-Yi Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Xiaolong Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Xu-Dong Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Lin Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Ji-Lei Shi: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Ya-Xia Yin: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Yu-Guo Guo: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Metallic lithium affords the highest theoretical capacity and lowest electrochemical potential and is viewed as a leading contender as an anode for high-energy-density rechargeable batteries. However, the poor wettability of molten lithium does not allow it to spread across the surface of lithiophobic substrates, hindering the production and application of this anode. Here we report a general chemical strategy to overcome this dilemma by reacting molten lithium with functional organic coatings or elemental additives. The Gibbs formation energy and newly formed chemical bonds are found to be the governing factor for the wetting behavior. As a result of the improved wettability, a series of ultrathin lithium of 10–20 μm thick is obtained together with impressive electrochemical performance in lithium metal batteries. These findings provide an overall guide for tuning the wettability of molten lithium and offer an affordable strategy for the large-scale production of ultrathin lithium, and could be further extended to other alkali metals, such as sodium and potassium.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12938-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12938-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12938-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().