Recent development in lithium metal anodes of liquid-state rechargeable batteries

Lithium metal has always been considered as a "Holy Grail" of anode materials for high-energy-density batteries owing to its extremely high theoretical gravimetric capacity of 3860 mAh g(-1) and the lowest electrochemical potential of -3.04 V. Unfortunately, huge challenges including unlimited dendrite growth and complex interfacial reaction accompanied with relatively low Coulombic efficiency have extremely restricted its practical applications for decades. In this review, we discuss recently exciting achievements in modifying Li metal anodes, particularly regarding porous structure design, surface modification, heterogeneous seed strategy, potential substitutes including Li powder, and pre-lithiated composite. Although each improvement method has its own advantage, we believe appropriate combination of them will yield more promising results. Finally, we discuss core issues and potential opportunities of Li metal anode, expecting to shed new light on future research in this field. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.