Revitalizing dendritic lithium with atomic modulator-decorated suspension electrolyte for durable lithium metal batteries
Lithium metal anodes suffer from dendrite growth, unstable solid electrolyte interphase, and “dead Li” owing to high barriers and inhomogeneous Li + desolvation/diffusion kinetics. Here, we present the suspension electrolyte endowed with atom-level catalytic inorganic particles of single atomic cobalt on defect-rich ZnO 1− x nanoparticles (SACo@ZO) in a carbonate-based electrolyte, enhancing desolvation/diffusion kinetics and revitalizing dendritic Li. As systematically investigated by in situ electrochemical sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy together with theoretical simulations, the SACo@ZO-assisted suspension electrolyte decreases the potential threshold down to 20 millivolts for driving interfacial desolvation rapidly, providing uniform solvation-free Li + /Li 0 flux and capability in revitalizing dendritic Li. Consequently, we achieve a smooth but dense Li plating behavior under room or low-temperature surroundings, lasting for a long life span of 1600 hours. Meanwhile, the practical Li-LiFePO 4 cell with SACo@ZO reserves the capacity retention of ~100% at 0.5 C and survives for 1000 cycles under 0°C, demonstrating the feasibility of atomically catalytic suspension electrolyte for high-performance dendrite-free Li metal batteries.
Authors
- Yidong Miao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0467-7775)
- Jian Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3747-7358)
- Zhenjiang Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7153-4130)
- Fanglin Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3546-1355)
- Fangqi Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9699-4713)
- Hui Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9198-3951)
- Qingbo Xiao
- Yi-Xiang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4021-4228)
- Bingbing Tang
- Hongzhen Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8764-1246)
- Maximilian Fichtner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7127-1823)
- Jing Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5623-1304)
- Yongzheng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3889-1710)
- Dong Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2456-6175)
Institutions
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE)
- National University of Defense Technology (CN)
- Jilin University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Nantong University (CN)
- Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (CN)
- Xi’an University (CN)
- Institute of Nanotechnology (GB)
- Helmholtz-Institute Ulm (DE)
- Xi'an University of Technology (CN)
- Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-05-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aef9111
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- National Key Research and Development Program of China