Nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers embedded with Cu/Cu3P heterostructures as multifunctional current collectors for stabilizing lithium anodes in lithium-sulfur batteries

•Novel 3D current collector consisting of N-doped porous CNFs with Cu/Cu3P decoration.•Cu/Cu3P-N-CNFs acting as mixed ion/electron conductor regulate Li plating/stripping.•Developed Li@Cu/Cu3P-N-CNFs anodes exhibit excellent performance in Li-S full cells.•Facile process and enhanced performance endow the current collector great potential. Among the various beyond-lithium-ion battery systems, lithium-sulfur batteries (Li-S) have been widely considered as one of the most promising technologies owing to their high theoretical energy density. However, the irregular Li platting/stripping and infinite volume change associated with low Coulombic efficiency and safety concerns of host-less lithium anode hinder the practical application of Li-S batteries. Herein, Cu/Cu3P heterostructure-embedded in carbon nanofibers (Cu/Cu3P-N-CNFs) are developed as multifunctional current collectors for regular lithium deposition. The 3D porous interconnected carbon skeleton endows effectively reduced local current density and volume expansion, meanwhile the Cu/Cu3P particles function as nucleation sites for uniform lithium plating. Consequently, the developed ion/electron-conducting skeleton delivers remarkable electrochemical performances in terms of high Coulombic efficiency for 500 cycles at 1 mA cm−2, and the accordingly symmetric cell exhibits long-term cyclic duration over 1500 h with a low voltage hysteresis of ∼ 80 mV at 1 mA cm−2. Moreover, Li-S full cells paired with the developed anode and S@CNTs cathode also show superior rate capability (568 mAh/g at 2C) and excellent stability of>500 cycles at 0.2C, further demonstrating the great potential of Cu/Cu3P-N-CNFs as promising current collectors for advanced lithium-metal batteries.