Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity

Dendritic lithium growth on the current collector remains a major obstacle to developing anode-less batteries, arising from inhomogeneous lithium nucleation and uneven surface lithiophilicity. Existing approaches, such as metallic or carbonaceous interlayers, often fail to stabilize lithium deposition due to mechanical degradation or spatial variations in lithium affinity. Here, we demonstrate that a monolayer amorphous carbon (MAC) film-a single-atom-thick disordered sp<sup>2</sup> network grown directly on copper-can fundamentally alter lithium nucleation behavior. The topological disorder of MAC produces a dense distribution of electron-rich sites that uniformly strengthen lithium binding. As a result, the MAC surface exhibits a lithium contact angle of 31 ± 5°, four times lower than that of graphene and nearly three times lower than that of bare copper, leading to homogeneous wetting and deposition. Electrochemical tests reveal a reduced nucleation overpotential of 28.9 mV at 0.5 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. Density functional theory and scanning tunneling microscopy confirm that disorder-induced localization of states near the Fermi level enhances electronegativity and forms continuous lithium-binding sites. These findings establish intrinsic structural disorder, rather than chemical doping, as an effective route to designing uniformly lithiophilic current collectors for next-generation anode-less batteries.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Science
Published
2025-11-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202516490
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.46
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article

Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity

Remi Mahfouz, Sergey Yu. Luchkin, Chee‐Tat Toh, H. L. Zhang et al.
2 citations
Advanced Science
Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
1.46
article

Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity

Remi Mahfouz, Sergey Yu. Luchkin, Chee‐Tat Toh, H. L. Zhang, Carlo M. Orofeo, Bent Weber, Lu Shi, Stefan Adams, Zhengjue Tong, Аlena A. Alekseeva, Kazu Suenaga, Nada Qari, Junhao Lin, Ruslan D. Yamaletdinov, Rejaul Sk, Artem K. Grebenko, Oleg V. Yazyev, Andrei V. Starkov, Barbaros Oezyilmaz, Konstantin Iakoubovskii, Ranjith Shivajirao, Hanning Zhang, Talah M. Tayeb
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Dendritic lithium growth on the current collector remains a major obstacle to developing anode-less batteries, arising from inhomogeneous lithium nucleation and uneven surface lithiophilicity. Existing approaches, such as metallic or carbonaceous interlayers, often fail to stabilize lithium deposition due to mechanical degradation or spatial variations in lithium affinity. Here, we demonstrate that a monolayer amorphous carbon (MAC) film-a single-atom-thick disordered sp<sup>2</sup> network grown directly on copper-can fundamentally alter lithium nucleation behavior. The topological disorder of MAC produces a dense distribution of electron-rich sites that uniformly strengthen lithium binding. As a result, the MAC surface exhibits a lithium contact angle of 31 ± 5°, four times lower than that of graphene and nearly three times lower than that of bare copper, leading to homogeneous wetting and deposition. Electrochemical tests reveal a reduced nucleation overpotential of 28.9 mV at 0.5 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. Density functional theory and scanning tunneling microscopy confirm that disorder-induced localization of states near the Fermi level enhances electronegativity and forms continuous lithium-binding sites. These findings establish intrinsic structural disorder, rather than chemical doping, as an effective route to designing uniformly lithiophilic current collectors for next-generation anode-less batteries.

Advanced ScienceVol. 13(3)
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (RU), National University of Singapore (SG), Nanyang Technological University (SG), Southern University of Science and Technology (CN), Sanken Electric (Japan) (JP), Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) (SA), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
1.46
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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