Three-dimensional Au/carbon nanotube-graphene foam hybrid nanostructure for dendrite free sodium metal anode with long cycle stability

•Sodiophilic Au NPs guide the sodium metal uniformly deposited onto the surface of Au/CNT-GF without dendrite formation.•The regulated uniform Na metal deposition mechanism is investigated by the in-situ optical microscopy, ex-situ SEM and simulation analysis.•It exhibits a low nucleation overpotential and stable cycle performance for 2600 h at 1 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2. Moreover, it can cycle for more than 300 h at 5 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2.•Furthermore, a full cell with Na@3D Au/CNT-GF as the anode is fabricated and delivers a capacity of 84.6 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 after 200 cycles.