High-areal-capacity anode-free all-solid-state lithium batteries enabled by interconnected carbon-reinforced ionic-electronic composites

Taking energy density and safety into account, the anode-free all-solid-state lithium battery is a strong candidate to surpass the capabilities of routine lithium-ion batteries. However, achieving uniform stable lithium metal plating under high areal capacity is a grand challenge facing practical applications of lithium metal batteries. We report a high-performance anode-free all-solid-state lithium battery with a current collector consisting of carbon-reinforced ionic-electronic composites. When an interconnected carbon paper is compounded with a solid electrolyte, a three-dimensional ionic-electronic conduction network can be achieved, affording a large number of sites and scalable spaces for the nucleation and growth of lithium metal. The composite layer can achieve a long cycle life (>5000 cycles), stable lithium metal plating with a high areal capacity (>8 mAh cm⁻²), which is significantly better than that of the copper current collectors for routine anode-free configurations. The application of high-areal-capacity (4 mAh cm⁻²) pouch cell provides an efficient and effective strategy for practical anode-free all-solid-state lithium batteries.