Self-standing carbon nanotube aerogels with amorphous carbon coating as stable host for lithium anodes

Lithium metal anodes have a high theoretic capacity and are considered the promising electrodes for high energy density rechargeable batteries. However, the uneven deposition of lithium and lithium dendrites hinders the practical usage of lithium metal anodes. In order to solve this problem, carbon nanotube aerogels coated with amorphous carbon (AC@CNT aerogels) are used as the host, and molten lithium infuses into the carbon aerogels to obtain composite lithium metal anodes. The self-standing, porous AC@CNT aerogels provide a solid structure for lithium deposition/stripping and effectively reduce the local current density, so that lithium dendrites are suppressed and better electrochemical performances are achieved. Compared with the bare lithium metal anodes, the AC@CNT aerogel/lithium metal (AC@CNT/Li) anodes exhibit a longer cycling life of 500 h at deposition/striping capacity of 1 mAh cm−2 on symmetric cells, better cycling performance of 152 mAh g−1 at 0.1C in lithium cobalt oxide/lithium (LCO/Li) cells, and 120.3 mAh g−1 at 1 C in lithium iron phosphate/Li (LFP/Li) cells, demonstrating the potential of the AC@CNT/Li electrodes in developing high-performance lithium-metal batteries. Composite lithium anodes are fabricated by infiltrating molten lithium into amorphous carbon-coated carbon nanotube (AC@CNT) aerogels via thermal infusion. The AC@CNT aerogels significantly improve lithium deposition/stripping behavior. The AC@CNT/Li electrode exhibits better electrochemical performances in both symmetric and lithium cobalt oxide/lithium cells than the bare lithium metal anode, demonstrating its potential in developing high-performance lithium batteries. [Display omitted]