Inorganic Battery Materials

Lithium Metal Anode

Siyuan Li, Jixiang Yang and Yingying Lu

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

1. 1 Introduction
2. 2 Characterization of Lithium Dendrite and Anode Surface Chemistry
3. 3 Intrinsic Property of SEI Layer on Lithium Metal Surface
4. 4 Modeling of Lithium Dendrite Growth
5. 5 Strategies to Protect Metallic Lithium Anode
6. 6 Summary and Outlook
7. 7 Related Article
8. 8 Abbreviations and Acronyms
9. 9 References

1 Introduction

Lithium (Li) metal is a promising anode material for next‐generation secondary batteries due to its relatively high theoretical capacity (3860 mA h g⁻¹), low redox potential (−3.04 V vs the standard hydrogen electrode), and low density (0.534 g cm⁻³), thus attracting the intensive researches to develop lithium metal‐based batteries (LMBs) since the 1960s (Figure 1a).¹–³ In the 1980s, Moli et al.⁴ firstly tried to commercialize the metal lithium secondary battery of Li/MoS₂ in mobile phones but failed by severe battery explosion, warning the safety hazards induced by lithium metal chemistry (Figure 1b). Specifically, there are two main obstacles when directly using metallic lithium as the anode. One is that Li metal problematically forms dendrite‐like lithium electrodeposition during the repeated plating/stripping process.⁵ The uneven ion flux caused by heterogeneous surface morphologies and chemistries tends to trigger dendrite nucleation. The sharp and dendritic lithium, the real culprit for cell short‐circuit and explosion, can spontaneously grow, amplify ...