Heteroatom-doped 3D porous carbon architectures for highly stable aqueous zinc metal batteries and non-aqueous lithium metal batteries

Abstract The cycling life of rechargeable metal cells is mainly restricted by dendritic growth of metals. Herein, N/O dual-doped 3D porous carbon architectures are designed on commercial Cu foam current collector (NOCA@CF) from MOF arrays precursors to suppress the dendrite growth of metal anodes. The unique architecture provides integrated merits of good hydrophilicity/lithiophilicity, abundant nuclear sites, high electronic conductivity and robust framework, which can significantly suppress the dendrite growth of both the aqueous zinc metal anode and nonaqueous lithium metal anode. As a result, both aqueous Zn@NOCA@CF||LiMn2O4 full cells and nonaqueous Li@NOCA@CF||LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4, Li@NOCA@CF||LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 full cells show superior stable electrochemical performance with high rate capability. Moreover, the results may be interesting for researchers on other metal based rechargeable batteries.