Three-Dimensional Nickel Foam-Based Lithiophilic LPP-Ni₃S₂@Ni Current Collector for Dendrite-Free Lithium Anode

Lithium metal has been treated as one of the most promising anode materials for next-generation rechargeable batteries due to its extremely high theoretical capacity. However, its practical application is hindered by inhomogeneous lithium deposition and uncontrolled dendrite growth. In this work, we prepared a three-dimensional nickel foam (NF)-based current collector with a lithiophilic interface layer through facile hydrothermal and coating methods. The lithiophilic Ni₃S₂ array synthesized via a hydrothermal method has been demonstrated to facilitate the nucleation of Li⁺. Moreover, it has been observed that the outer coating comprising LPP effectively enhances the inward diffusion of Li⁺. Additionally, this interface layer can serve as an isolating barrier between the electrodes and the electrolyte. The prepared LPP-Ni₃S₂@Ni shows significant reversibility both in symmetric cells (1200 h, 1 mA cm^-2) and half-cells (CE: 99.60%, 500 cycles, 1 mA cm^-2) with low interfacial resistance (35 Ω). Full cells with LiFePO₄ as a cathode also exhibit promising electrochemical performance with over 76.78% capacity retention over 200 cycles at 1 C.