Interwoven nickel(II)-dimethylglyoxime nanowires in 3D nickel foam for dendrite-free lithium deposition

Metal skeletons, such as Nickel Foam (NF) has attracted worldwide interests as stable host for lithium metal anode because of its high stability, large specific surface area and high conductivity. However, most metal skeletons have lithophobic surface and uneven current distribution that result in sporadic lithium nucleation and uncontrolled dendrites growth. Herein, we describe a sequential immersing strategy to generate interwoven Nickel(II)-dimethylglyoxime (Ni-DMG) nanowires at NF to obtain composite skeleton (NDNF), which can be used as an stable host for Li metal storage. The Ni-DMG has proved effective to realize uniform lithium nucleation and dendrite-free lithium deposition. Combing with the three dimensional (3D) hierarchical porous structure, the composite host shows a significantly improved coulombic efficiency (CE) than pristine commercial nickel foam. Moreover, the corresponding Li parallel to Li symmetrical cells can run more than 700 h with low voltage hysteresis 22 mV at 1.0 mA/cm(2), and Li@NDNF parallel to LiFePO 4 full-cell exhibits a high capacity retention of 82.03% at 1.0 C during 630 cycles. These results proved the effectiveness of metal-organic complexes in governing Li metal growth and can be employed as a new strategy for dendrite-free Li metal anode and safe Li metal batteries (LMBs). (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Automated summary

This study presents a sequential immersing strategy to generate interwoven nanowires on nickel foam, forming a composite skeleton that serves as a stable host for lithium metal storage. The composite host demonstrates improved coulombic efficiency compared to commercial nickel foam. Moreover, it exhibits high capacity retention in both lithium parallel to lithium symmetrical cells and Li@NDNF parallel to LiFePO4 full-cell.