Superior stability of Li5Mg@Cu anodes for lithium metal batteries: Investigating the suppression effects of magnesium on lithium dendrite growth

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2024.04.065

J. Mater. Sci. Technol. ›› 2025, Vol. 211: 288-302.DOI: 10.1016/j.jmst.2024.04.065

• Research Article • Previous Articles Next Articles

Superior stability of Li₅Mg@Cu anodes for lithium metal batteries: Investigating the suppression effects of magnesium on lithium dendrite growth

Ruijun Yao^a,1, Zhuoyu Li^d,1, Longke Bao^a, Rui Deng^a, Kai Zheng^a, Yiming Hu^a, Jiahui Li^a, Hao Zhang^a, Shaobo Tu^e, Rongpei Shi^a,b, Junwei Wu^a,*, Changming Li^c,*, Xingjun Liu^a,b,2,*

^aCollege of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Genome and Big Data, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China;
^b21C Innovation Laboratory (21C LAB), Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., Ningde 352100, China;
^cInstitute for Materials Science and Devices, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215011, China;
^dDepartment of Materials Process Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan;
^eSchool of Physics and Materials Science, Nanchang University, 999 Xuefu Road, Honggutan District, Nanchang 330031, China

Received:2023-12-19 Revised:2024-04-14 Accepted:2024-04-22 Published:2025-03-10 Online:2024-05-17
Contact: * E-mail addresses: junwei.wu@hit.edu.cn (J. Wu), ecmli@swu.edu.cn (C. Li), xjliu@hit.edu.cn (X. Liu).2 Xingjun Liu, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Genome and Big Data, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China.
About author:¹ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Abstract: Li metal is widely recognized as the desired anode for next-generation energy storage, Li metal batteries, due to its highest theoretical capacity and lowest potential. Nonetheless, it suffers from unstable electrochemical behaviors like dendrite growth and side reactions in practical application. Herein, we report a highly stable anode with collector, Li₅Mg@Cu, realized by the melting-rolling process. The Li₅Mg@Cu anode delivers ultrahigh cycle stability for 2000 and 1000 h at the current densities of 1 and 2 mA cm^-2, respectively in symmetric cells. Meanwhile, the Li₅Mg@Cu|LFP cell exhibits a high-capacity retention of 91.8 % for 1000 cycles and 78.8 % for 2000 cycles at 1 C. Moreover, we investigate the suppression effects of Mg on the dendrite growth by studying the performance of Li_xMg@Cu electrodes with different Mg contents (2.0-16.7 at%). The exchange current density, surface energy, Li⁺ diffusion coefficient, and chemical stability of Li_xMg@Cu concretely reveal this improving suppression effect when Mg content becomes higher. In addition, a Mg-rich phase with “hollow brick” morphology forming in the high Mg content Li_xMg@Cu guides the uniform deposition of Li. This study reveals the suppression effects of Mg on Li dendrites growth and offers a perspective for finding the optimal component of Li-Mg alloys.

Key words: Lithium dendrite, Lithium metal anode, Lithium-magnesium alloy, Cycle performance, Suppression effect, Stability

Ruijun Yao, Zhuoyu Li, Longke Bao, Rui Deng, Kai Zheng, Yiming Hu, Jiahui Li, Hao Zhang, Shaobo Tu, Rongpei Shi, Junwei Wu, Changming Li, Xingjun Liu. Superior stability of Li₅Mg@Cu anodes for lithium metal batteries: Investigating the suppression effects of magnesium on lithium dendrite growth[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2025, 211: 288-302.

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Superior stability of Li₅Mg@Cu anodes for lithium metal batteries: Investigating the suppression effects of magnesium on lithium dendrite growth

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