Au@rGO modified Ni foam as a stable host for lithium metal anode

Abstract The commercial development of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have been hampered from the uncontrollable growth of Li dendrites and low coulombic efficiency (CE). In this respect, the exploration of advanced host materials to regulate the behavior of Li plating/stripping is an effective strategy to resolve those issues. In this work, we report the modified Ni foam by Au nanoparticles decorated reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as effective Li host (denoted as Au@rGONi). Thus-prepared Li host enabled a stable CE as high as 96.5% after 100 cycles at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 with a capacity of 1 mAh cm−2. The according symmetric cell delivered a long-term lifespan of 1000 h without obvious voltage fluctuation under 0.5 mA cm−2/1 mAh cm−2. More encouragingly, a full LIB based on the Au@rGONi-300 anode and LiFeO4 cathode demonstrated excellent discharge-charge cycling behavior with a high capacity of 130.5 mAh g−1 after 140 cycles at 0.2C. This work presents the feasibility to develop stable lithium metal anodes by surface modification of commercial Ni foam with lithiophilic materials.