An amorphous ZnO and oxygen vacancy modified nitrogen-doped carbon skeleton with lithiophilicity and ionic conductivity for stable lithium metal anodes

Abstract

Lithium metal is regarded as the most potential anode material for batteries with a high energy density, but is seriously hampered by the dead Li and Li dendrites generated during cycling. Appropriate control of the Li plating/stripping process is an effective strategy to alleviate these above two issues. Here, a ZnO and oxygen vacancy modified nitrogen-doped three-dimensional (3D) carbon skeleton is designed as a multifunctional host for stable Li metal anodes. The synergistic effect of the 3D structure with reduced local current density, lithiophilic nitrogen-doped sites and tiny amorphous ZnO with low nucleation barriers, and oxygen vacancies with high ion conductivity guide Li deposition. When used as an anode, the designed symmetric cell exhibits a long-term cycling duration over 1500 h with a low overpotential (16 mV) at 5 mA cm⁻² and 5 mA h cm⁻². The full cell of MA-Zn-C-Li//LiFePO₄ also exhibited superior cycling performance. This work provides a promising surface adjustment strategy with a difunctional host for high-performance Li metal batteries.