Dynamic Regulation of Lithium Dendrite Growth with Electromechanical Coupling Effect of Soft BaTiO₃ Ceramic Nanofiber Films

Abstract

Lithium (Li) metal batteries (LMBs) offer great opportunity for developing high-energy density energy-storage-systems, but the anodes suffer a severe problem of dendrite growth that hinders the practical applications of LMBs. Here, we report a soft BaTiO₃ ceramic nanofiber film with excellent ferroelectricity and piezoelectricity that enables one to transverse the dense deposition of Li metal. During Li plating, the strong ferroelectricity reduces the Li-ion concentration gradient near the anode and thus facilitating their uniform deposition. Once squeezed by these Li deposits, the BaTiO₃ film generates instantaneous piezo-effect to dynamically change the subsequent Li deposition from vertical to lateral. As a result, Li-Cu cells exhibit reversible plating-stripping processes for over 200 cycles with a high Coulombic efficiency of >98.3%. When pairing with high-voltage LiNi_0.8Co_0.15Al_0.05O₂ cathodes, the LMBs can retain >80% capacity in 300 cycles without forming dendrites even under challenging conditions including a high cathode loading of 7.2 mg/cm², a lean electrolyte amount of 7 μL/mg, and high current rates. The findings point to a promising electromechanical coupling strategy to dynamically adjust dendrite growth for designing Li metal anodes.