In-situ construction of a hybrid interfacial protective layer for highly stable Li metal anodes

Lithium (Li) metal is an ideal anode candidate for rechargeable batteries because of its ultra-high theoretical specific capacity. Unfortunately, the practical application of Li metal anodes (LMA) is severely limited by the uncontrollable formation and growth of dendrites and volume expansion. Thus, a protective layer is essential for stable and high-performance LMA. In this work, an organic-inorganic hybrid protective layer is in-situ prepared on Li foil surface (pa-Li), consisting of the organic Polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) and inorganic Ag-LixAgy composites. Going beyond conventional protective layers, the hybrid protective layer is flexible and enables strong interfacial adherence due to an alloying process. Furthermore, owing to the protective layer's outstanding lithiophilicity and mechanical stability, the pa-Lilipa-Li symmetric cell exhibits satisfactory stability for 1000 h at 5 mA/cm(2), 5 mA h/cm(2) with a low voltage hysteresis of similar to 70 mV, while the full cell with a LiFePO4 cathode delivers an excellent reversible capacity of 128.9 mA h/g for 900 cycles at 2C with a capacity decay rate of 0.009 % per cycle. (c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved