A biomimetic host from a poultry bone structure enables dendrite-free lithium deposition

TY - JOUR

T1 - A biomimetic host from a poultry bone structure enables dendrite-free lithium deposition

AU - Yang, Feiyang

AU - Wu, Feng

AU - Gou, Zhaolin

AU - Zheng, Lijun

AU - Wang, Junce

AU - Chen, Ziyi

AU - Zhang, Cunzhong

AU - Su, Yuefeng

AU - Lu, Jun

AU - Yao, Ying

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Carbon Energy published by Wenzhou University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

PY - 2025/7

Y1 - 2025/7

N2 - Lithium metal anode is one of the ideal anode materials for the next generation of high-energy-density battery systems. Unfortunately, the uneven nucleation of Li leads to dendrite growth and volume changes during cycling, resulting in poor electrochemical performance and potential safety hazards, which hinder its practical application. In this work, a low-cost chicken-bone-derived carbon material (CBC) with a biomimetic structure was designed and synthesized using a simple one-step carbonization method. Combining theoretical calculations and experimental results, the self-doped N and S heteroatoms in CBC are demonstrated to effectively reduce the binding energy with Li atoms and lower the nucleation overpotential. After uniform nucleation, the Li metal grows in a spherical shape without dendrites, which is related to the reduction of the local current density inside the biomimetic crosslinking structure of CBC. Benefiting from this favorable Li growth behavior, the Li@CBC electrode achieves ultra-low nucleation overpotential (15.5 mV at 0.1 mA cm−2) and superdense lithium deposition (zero volume expansion rate at a capacity of 2 mAh cm−2) without introducing additional lithiophilic sites. The CBC retains a high Coulombic efficiency of over 98% in 479 cycles (1 mA cm−2 and 1 mAh cm−2) when applied in a half-cell with Li, and shows an excellent rate and cycling performance when applied in a full cell with LiFePO4 as the cathode.

AB - Lithium metal anode is one of the ideal anode materials for the next generation of high-energy-density battery systems. Unfortunately, the uneven nucleation of Li leads to dendrite growth and volume changes during cycling, resulting in poor electrochemical performance and potential safety hazards, which hinder its practical application. In this work, a low-cost chicken-bone-derived carbon material (CBC) with a biomimetic structure was designed and synthesized using a simple one-step carbonization method. Combining theoretical calculations and experimental results, the self-doped N and S heteroatoms in CBC are demonstrated to effectively reduce the binding energy with Li atoms and lower the nucleation overpotential. After uniform nucleation, the Li metal grows in a spherical shape without dendrites, which is related to the reduction of the local current density inside the biomimetic crosslinking structure of CBC. Benefiting from this favorable Li growth behavior, the Li@CBC electrode achieves ultra-low nucleation overpotential (15.5 mV at 0.1 mA cm−2) and superdense lithium deposition (zero volume expansion rate at a capacity of 2 mAh cm−2) without introducing additional lithiophilic sites. The CBC retains a high Coulombic efficiency of over 98% in 479 cycles (1 mA cm−2 and 1 mAh cm−2) when applied in a half-cell with Li, and shows an excellent rate and cycling performance when applied in a full cell with LiFePO4 as the cathode.

KW - biocarbon

KW - biomimetic structure

KW - carbon host

KW - lithium dendrite-free

KW - lithium metal anode

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105002706144

U2 - 10.1002/cey2.671

DO - 10.1002/cey2.671

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105002706144

SN - 2637-9368

VL - 7

JO - Carbon Energy

JF - Carbon Energy

IS - 7

M1 - e671

ER -