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Ultrathin Al2O3-coated reduced graphene oxide membrane for stable lithium metal anode

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Abstract

Lithium (Li) metal has been considered as the most attractive anode materials for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretic specific capacity. The formation of unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and dendritic Li on the metal anode, however, hindered its practical application. Herein, to address the issues, a Li-free electrode with ultrathin Al2O3 coated on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membrane that covers a Cu foil current collector was developed. The composite electrode exhibits excellent interfacial protection of lithium metal deposited between Cu foil and rGO electrochemically. Firstly, it affords good Li+ permeability from the electrolyte. Secondly, the ultrathin Al2O3 has sufficient mechanical strength to inhibit the penetration of Li dendrite. Li metal was observed uniformly deposited between rGO membrane and Cu collector, and stable cycle performance of Li plating/stripping with Coulombic efficiency of ~ 91.75% at the 100th cycle is achieved in organic carbonate electrolyte without any additives.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51772241), the Key Research Program of Shaanxi Province (No. 2017ZDXM-GY-035), the Young Talent Support Plan of Xi’an Jiaotong University (No. DQ1J006), the Project from State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi’an Jiaotong University (No. EIPE17306) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. zrzd2017004, xjj2017076) for financial support. We also acknowledge Dr. Zhao-Xi Chen for the polishing and edition of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Nanomaterials for Renewable Energy, State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Fan Zhang, Fei Shen, Zhao-Yang Fan, Xin Ji, Bin Zhao, Zhou-Ting Sun, Ying-Ying Xuan & Xiao-Gang Han

  2. Key Laboratory of Smart Grid of Shaanxi Province, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Fan Zhang, Fei Shen, Bin Zhao, Ying-Ying Xuan & Xiao-Gang Han

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  1. Fan Zhang
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  2. Fei Shen
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  3. Zhao-Yang Fan
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  4. Xin Ji
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  5. Bin Zhao
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  8. Xiao-Gang Han
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Correspondence to Xiao-Gang Han.

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Zhang, F., Shen, F., Fan, ZY. et al. Ultrathin Al2O3-coated reduced graphene oxide membrane for stable lithium metal anode. Rare Met. 37, 510–519 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-018-1054-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-018-1054-6

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