Self‐Assembled Tent‐Like Nanocavities for Space‐Confined Stable Lithium Metal Anode

Lithium metal is considered as a promising anode for its high energy density and low redox potential. However, dendrite growth and electrolyte-lithium reaction lead to poor cycling stability of lithium anodes. Herein, a space-confined strategy is proposed to realize stable Li metal anode by constructing a nonplanar interface with flexible tent-like nanocavities. The tent-like interface is achieved through the self-assembly of graphene oxide on zinc nanosheets, accompanied by the spontaneous formation of Zn-O-C bond. Remarkably, the Zn-O-C bond immobilizes the graphene oxide layer to ensure tent-like structural integrity, and shows excellent lithophilicity to induce homogeneous lithium deposition within nanocavities. Furthermore, the process of Li plating/stripping is confined inside tent-like nanocavities to effectively decrease electrolyte content contact with fresh Li, which reduces hazardous electrolyte-lithium reaction and thus eliminates continuous consumption of Li metal. Consequently, the symmetrical cells with the tent-like interface deliver excellent long cycling performance over 1600 h at 1 mA cm(-2), and full batteries show high-capacity retention of 94.6% after 3000 cycles at 5 C. This strategy provides a unique flexible tent-like interface to achieve stable lithium metal anode.