High-Areal Capacity, High-Rate Lithium Metal Anodes Enabled by Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Mesh

Hosts hold great prospects for addressing the dendrite growth and volume expansion of the Li metal anode, but Li dendrites are still observable under the conditions of high deposition capacity and/or high current density. Herein, a nitrogen-doped graphene mesh (NGM) is developed, which possesses a conductive and lithiophilic scaffold for efficient Li deposition. The abundant nanopores in NGM can not only provide sufficient room for Li deposition, but also speed up Li ion transport to achieve a high-rate capability. Moreover, the evenly distributed N dopants on the NGM can guide the uniform nucleation of Li so that to inhibit dendrite growth. As a result, the composite NGM@Li anode shows satisfactory electrochemical performances for Li–S batteries, including a high capacity of 600 mAh g⁻¹ after 300 cycles at 1 C and a rate capacity of 438 mAh g⁻¹ at 3 C. This work provides a new avenue for the fabrication of graphene-based hosts with large areal capacity and high-rate capability for Li metal batteries.