Carbon enables the practical use of lithium metal in a battery

The currently available commercial lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with a relatively low energy density cannot meet the growing demands of energy storage systems for portable electronics and electric vehicles. Lithium metal with its high specific capacity (3860 mA h/g) is regarded as one of the most promising anode materials for next-generation rechargeable lithium batteries including Li-S and Li-air batteries. However, the safety issues induced by Li dendrites and the low Coulombic efficiency of this battery limit the cycle life and thus hinder its practical utilization. Carbon materials and their composites with controllable structures and properties, have been explored to address these issues and show great potential for lithium anode protection. In this review, various protection strategies of the Li metal anode using carbon materials are summarized and the rational design of carbon materials with different functions and their roles in Li metal protection are discussed in details. More importantly, the remaining problems and possible solutions for the future development of carbon materials for use with Li anodes are commented and prospected.

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