Overview: Commercial carbon cloth as a substrate for practical lithium metal batteries

 Background

Although lithium-ion batteries have been researched for more than three decades, their limited energy density still cannot meet the range anxiety of current electric vehicles to some extent. Therefore, developing safe, reliable, low-cost, and high-energy density batteries has become a priority.

 

Among them, the theoretical capacity of lithium metal anodes is as high as 3860.0 mAh/g, and the redox potential is as low as −3.040 V (vs. standard hydrogen electrode, SHE), which has attracted much attention from researchers and enterprises.

 

However, lithium metal anodes still face many challenges in practical applications, such as uneven lithium deposition, unstable solid electrolyte interface (SEI), and constant volume changes during cycling.

 

In order to solve the above problems, researchers have developed various methods, such as introducing 3D host materials, constructing artificial solid electrode interfaces, and designing solid-state electrolytes. In the above strategy, materials with three-dimensional self-supporting skeletons and high electronic conductivity perform well in inhibiting lithium metal anode dendrite growth because the local current density is reduced and the space for volume expansion is increased.

 

So far, various 3D self-supporting materials have been reported and can be classified as metal-based (copper foam, nickel foam, etc.). Carbon-based (carbon nanotubes, graphene, redox graphene, carbon cloth, porous carbon, etc.). For metal-based 3D substrates, heavy mass and large volume limit the volumetric energy density and mass energy density of batteries, while poor flexibility and mechanical properties hinder the practical application of lithium metal anodes. Compared with metal substrates, carbon-based substrates can compensate for these defects and have the advantages of wide range of use, low cost, high conductivity, good thermal stability, good mechanical properties and low mass density.

 

Image source: Energy Storage Materials

 

Introduction

 

Commercial carbon cloth has the advantages of three-dimensional structure, good flexibility, good conductivity, cheap price, and self-support, making it an ideal choice for practical lithium metal batteries. However, a review and outlook on the lithium-philic modification of carbon cloth for lithium metal batteries has not been reported. This paper summarizes the research progress of carbon blast-based lithium metal batteries and looks forward to the future development prospects.

 

Ci Lijie/Li Deping from Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) reviewed carbon cloth from three aspects according to the different modification mechanisms of lithium metal anode hosts. In the first part, the mechanism of the Li x C reaction when carbon cloth is directly used as a lithium metal anode and when carbon cloth is used as an anode, is introduced. The second part introduces the surface modification strategies of heteroatomic doping and functional group introduction on the surface of carbon cloth and the construction of surface nanoscale cracks, and summarizes their common characteristics. In the third part, the lithium metal anode modification strategy for modifying carbon cloth to construct surface nanostructures using lithium-philic but non-reactive materials (CNTs, heteroatom-doped graphene, etc.) and lithium-philic and non-reactive materials (Zn, ZnO, CuO, CoO, TiO2, etc.) is introduced in two sections, and its internal mechanism is elucidated through the same type of work. The authors conclude that the use of heteroatomic doping and nanostructure construction can significantly improve the lithium philicity of carbon cloths and contribute to the long cycle life and cycle capacity retention of symmetrical batteries.

 

Content details

 

Since this article is a review article and has a lot of content, interested readers can download the original text to read by themselves.

 

 

Modification strategies for carbon cloth for lithium metal batteries (Image source: Energy Storage Materials)

 

The development roadmap of lithium carbon cloth-based metal batteries (Image source: Energy Storage Materials)

 

Attach:

 

References:

Zhang S, Xiao S, Li D, et al. Commercial carbon cloth: an emerging substrate for practical lithium metal batteries[J]. Energy Storage Materials, 2022.

 

Literature links:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405829722001532?via%3Dihub

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