3D Cu Pyramid Array Grown on Planar Cu Foil for Stable and Dendrite-free Lithium Deposition

Lithium metal is recognized as the anticipated anode for rechargeable batteries because of its inherent physicochemical properties. Unfortunately, the industrialization of Li metal anodes (LMAs) has been entangled in some intractable problems stemming from the uncontrollable growth of Li dendrites, which could result in the issue of short-circuit, thereby leading to cell failure. Here, a three-dimensional structured Cu pyramid array (CPA@CF) is constructed on planar Cu foil (CF) by the simple electrodeposition method. Owing to the features of large surface area and 3D porous structure, the proposed CPA@CF not only can promote Li-ion diffusion and charge transfer, but also effectively slow down the volume change of Li. Consequently, an even and steady Li plating/stripping process up to 360 h is realized using such a CPA@CF current collector. The Li@CPA@CF|LiFePO4 full cell achieves an excellent Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.3 % for 160 cycles at 0.3 C with a superior capacity retention of 84.2 %

Realizing Rapid Kinetics of Na Ions in Tin‐Antimony Bimetallic Sulfide Anode with Engineered Porous Structure

Metallic sulfide anodes show great promise for sodium‐ion batteries due to their high theoretic capacities. However, their practical application is greatly hampered by poor electrochemical performance because of the large volume expansion of the sulfides and the sluggish kinetics of the Na+ ions. Herein, a porous bimetallic sulfide of the SnS/Sb2S3 heterostructure is constructed that is encapsulated in the sulfur and nitrogen codoped carbon matrix (SnS/Sb2S3@SNC) by a facile and scalable method. The porous structure can provide void space to alleviate the volume expansion upon cycling, guaranteeing excellent structural stability. The unique heterostructure and the S, N codoped carbon matrix together facilitate fast‐charge transport to improve reaction kinetics. Benefitting from these merits, the SnS/Sb2S3@SNC electrode exhibits high capacities of 425 mA h g−1 at 200 mA g−1 after 100 cycles, and 302 mA h g−1 at 500 mA g−1 after 400 cycles. Moreover, the SnS/Sb2S3@SNC anode shows an outstanding rate performance with a capacity of over 200 mA h g−1 at a high current density of 5000 mA g−1. This study provides a new strategy and insight into the design of electrode materials with the potential for the practical realization and applications of next‐generation batteries