A 3D conducting scaffold with in-situ grown lithiophilic Ni2P nanoarrays for high stability lithium metal anodes

Abstract Lithium (Li) metal is the most potential anode material for the next-generation high-energy rechargeable batteries. However, intrinsic surface unevenness and ‘hostless’ nature of Li metal induces infinite volume effect and uncontrollable dendrite growth. Herein, we design the in-situ grown lithiophilic Ni2P nanoarrays inside nickel foam (PNF). Uniform Ni2P nanoarrays coating presents a very low nucleation overpotential, which induces the homogeneous Li deposition in the entire spaces of three-dimensional (3D) metal framework. Specifically, the lithiophilic Ni2P nanoarrays possess characteristics of electrical conductivity and structural stability, which have almost no expansion and damage during repeating Li plating/stripping. Therefore, they chronically inhibit the growth of Li dendrites. This results in an outstanding Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 98% at 3 mA cm−2 and an ultralong cycling life over 2000 cycles with a low overpotential. Consequently, the PNF-Li||LiFePO4 battery maintains a capacity retention of 95.3% with a stable CE of 99.9% over 500 cycles at 2C.