Lithiophilicity conversion of carbon paper with uniform Cu₂₊₁O coating : Boosting stable Li-Cu₂₊₁O-CP composite anode through melting infusion

The carbon-based materials are promising hosts for metallic Li owing to their merits of excellent chemical stability, high porosity and electrical conductivity, as well as lightweight. Nevertheless, homogeneously pre-depositing Li into the carbon hosts remains a challenge owing to the inherited lithiophobic surface of carbon materials. In this contribution, we found that the Cu₂₊₁O was lithiophilic and the origin of the lithiophilicity of Cu₂₊₁O was investigated. Furthermore, a facile approach was presented to uniformly coat a thin Cu₂₊₁O layer onto commercial carbon papers (CPs) to modify the surfaces of CPs into lithiophilic and after molten Li infusion, the Li-Cu₂₊₁O-CP composite anode was fabricated. The CP could accommodate the huge volume change of Li and suppress the Li dendrite growth during cycling. As a result, the Li-Cu₂₊₁O-CP composite anode delivered a stable repeating Li plating and stripping behavior (500 cycles at 10 mA cm⁻² with 3 mAh cm⁻²Li) based on symmetric cell, as well as enhanced rate capability and cycling stability (97% capacity retention after 500 cycles) in full cells integrated with a commercial LiFePO₄ cathode.