Promoting homogeneous lithium deposition by facet-specific absorption of CoIn₃ for dendrite-free lithium metal anodes

Lithium metal is expected to be an ideal anode material for future high-energy density lithium batteries. However, the uncontrollable growth of lithium dendrites resulting in a short circuit inside the battery and battery failure has become an obstacle to commercializing lithium metal batteries. In this work, a surface with lithiophilic CoIn₃ nucleation sites is developed to achieve a uniform lithium deposition by low temperature thermal treatment of super lithiophilic indium foil with three-dimensional (3D) cobalt foam (CoIn₃ @CF). The CoIn₃ @CF with 3D porous structure provide channels for rapid Li-ions (Li⁺) transport and inhibit the volume expansion, while the synergistic effect of lithiophilic CoIn₃ alloys caused by the multi-facet orientation relationship promote the formation of homogeneous Li⁺ diffusion. As a result, the CoIn₃@CF host exhibits long cycling over 2400 h at 40 mA cm⁻²/1 mA cm⁻² in symmetric cells. Moreover, a full cell with the Li/CoIn₃ @CF as anode and LiFePO₄ as cathode delivers a columbic efficiency more than 99.3% over 800 cycles. This work provides a new perspective for the design of high energy Li anodes.