Electrolyte Chemistry in 3D Metal Oxide Nanorod Arrays Deciphers Lithium Dendrite-Free Plating/Stripping Behaviors for High-Performance Lithium Batteries

Lithium dendrite-free deposition is crucial to stabilizing lithium batteries, where the three-dimensional (3D) metal oxide nanoarrays demonstrate an impressive capability to suppress dendrite due to the spatial effect. Herein, we introduce a new insight into the ameliorated lithium plating process on 3D nanoarrays. As a paradigm, novel 3D Cu2O and Cu nanorod arrays were in situ designed on copper foil. We find that the dendrite and electrolyte decomposition can be mitigated effectively by Cu2O nanoarrays, while the battery failed fast when the Cu nanoarrays were used. We show that Li2O (i.e., formed in the lithiation of Cu2O) is critical to stabilizing the electrolyte; otherwise, the electrolyte would be decomposed seriously. Our viewpoint is further proved when we revisit the metal (oxide) nanoarrays reported before. Thus, we discovered the importance of electrolyte stability as a precondition for nanoarrays to suppress dendrite and/or achieve a reversible lithium plating/stripping for high-performance lithium batteries.