Lithiophilic NiO Nanoparticles Embedded in Porous\nCarbon Nanosheet Arrays on Commercial Nickel Foam Hosts for Dendrite-Free\nLi Metal Anodes

MOF-derived NiO embedded porous carbon\nnanosheet arrays (NiO-C)\nhave been successfully coated on the inside surfaces of commercial\nnickel foam frameworks (NiO-C@NF) as highly lithiophilic and stable\nhosts for Li composite anodes. It is demonstrated that the lithiophilic\nnature of embedded NiO and the adsorption effect of porous carbon\nnanosheet arrays could synergistically endow the NiO-C@NF hosts with\nexcellent Li wettability, resulting in the fast impregnation of molten\nLi to obtain the NiO-C@NF/Li composite anodes. Moreover, the porous,\nconductive,\nand lithiophilic NiO-C nanosheet arrays of NiO-C@NF hosts could effectively\nbuffer the volume variation, lower the local current density, and\nreduce the Li nucleation barrier during charging and discharging processes,\nthus prohibiting the uncontrollable formation of Li dendrites. As\na consequence, the NiO-C@NF/Li composite anodes exhibit uniform Li\nstripping/plating morphologies and long cycling lifespan over 1000\nh with extremely small overpotential of ∼26 mV in symmetric\ncells at the areal current density of 3 mA cm<sup>–2</sup>.\nFurthermore, when coupled with sulfur, LiFePO<sub>4</sub>, and LiNi<sub>0.8</sub>Co<sub>0.1</sub>Mn<sub>0.1</sub>O<sub>2</sub> cathodes in\ncoin-type full cells, the NiO-C@NF/Li composite anodes also exhibit\nexcellent cycling stability and rate performances, suggesting their\npromising prospects for energy-storage application.