Controllable lithium deposition behavior hollow of N, O co-doped carbon nanospheres for practical lithium metal batteries

Metallic Li is of great significance for high energy Li-based batteries due to its high specific capacity, low electrochemical potential, and low density. However, host-less Li deposition and dendritic growth are the main bottlenecks in Li-based batteries? practical application. We demonstrate a hollow N, O co-doped carbon nanosphere (NOCS) as a current collector for Li metal anode in this work. It can alleviate the volume effect and delay the generation of Li dendrite and induce the uniform deposition of Li on the NOCS electrode and improve Coulombic efficiency (CE). Li/NOCS half cells deliver a higher CE and longer cycle life, and symmetrical cells exhibit lower voltage hysteresis and more stable cyclic performance. DFT calculation confirmed that N-doping and O-doping improve the affinity between N/O-doped carbon sites with Li. Besides, we use finite Li as the anode to prepare the Li@NOCS parallel to LiFePO4 full cells to evaluate the possibility of practical application. The Li@NOCS parallel to LiFePO4 full cells have excellent cycling and rate performance compared to Li@Cu parallel to LiFePO4 full cells.

Automated summary

The study showed that a hollow N, O co-doped carbon nanosphere (NOCS) as a current collector for Li metal anode can improve the cycling performance of Li-based batteries and reduce dendritic growth. Using N, O-doped carbon nanospheres as a current collector can enhance the uniformity of Li deposition and Coulombic efficiency, leading to longer cycle life and more stable performance. Additionally, the Li@NOCS parallel to LiFePO4 full cells demonstrated excellent cycling and rate performance compared to Li@Cu parallel to LiFePO4 full cells.