A highly stable glass fiber host for lithium metal anode behaving enhanced coulombic efficiency

Lithium metal is the most promising anode for lithium rechargeable batteries due to the extra-high theoretical specific capacity and low electrochemical potential. However, lithium dendrite growth and infinite volume change during reduplicative plating/stripping processes induce the security issue, low coulombic efficiency and poor cycle performance of lithium metal batteries. Here, with high tensile strength, elasticity and good chemical resistance, glass fiber films are employed as a three-dimensional host of lithium metal anode, on which, golden nanoparticles are coated by cool sputtering to direct the planiform deposition of lithium. Thanks to the effective suppression of lithium dendrite growth, a stable and reversible lithium metal anode is achieved with an average coulombic efficiency of 98.1% over 400 cycles in ether-based electrolyte (at a current density of 1 mA cm⁻² for a total of 1 mAh cm⁻² of lithium). Besides, compared with carbon nanofiber films which the voltage hysteresis increased drastically after 50 cycles, glass fiber films exhibit more stable cyclic performance over 200 cycles. Furthermore, a full battery when it is coupled the anode with lithium iron phosphate shows enhanced rate capability and high cycle stability with retention of 95.6% at 2C over 150 cycles, which demonstrates a promising high-energy and safe rechargeable lithium metal battery.