Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder-Induced Lithiophilicity

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Surface Science

Background:

• Dendritic lithium growth on current collectors hinders anode-less battery development due to uneven lithium nucleation and surface lithiophilicity.
• Current methods using interlayers often fail due to mechanical issues or inconsistent lithium affinity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of a monolayer amorphous carbon (MAC) film on lithium nucleation and deposition.
• To establish intrinsic structural disorder as a strategy for designing uniformly lithiophilic current collectors.

Main Methods:

• Growth of a monolayer amorphous carbon (MAC) film on copper current collectors.
• Contact angle measurements to assess surface lithiophilicity.
• Electrochemical tests to evaluate nucleation overpotential.
• Density functional theory (DFT) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) for theoretical analysis.

Main Results:

• MAC film exhibits significantly enhanced lithiophilicity with a low lithium contact angle (31 ± 5°).
• Homogeneous lithium wetting and deposition observed on the MAC surface.
• Reduced nucleation overpotential (28.9 mV at 0.5 mA cm⁻²) demonstrated.
• DFT and STM confirm disorder-induced electron localization enhances lithium binding.

Conclusions:

• Topological disorder in MAC films uniformly strengthens lithium binding through electron-rich sites.
• Intrinsic structural disorder is an effective strategy for creating uniformly lithiophilic surfaces.
• This approach offers a promising route for next-generation anode-less batteries.