Green in Situ Growth Solid Electrolyte Interphase Layer with High Rebound Resilience for Long-Life Lithium Metal Anodes

Lithium (Li) metal is one of the most promising anodes for the high-energy density lithium batteries. Nevertheless, it is still a great challenge to construct a dendrite-free Li anode with stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) by adopting environmentally friendly approaches. Herein, a green artificial Li polylactic acid (LiPLA) SEI layer with biodegradability and highly rebound resilience is fabricated via an in situ reaction to regulate Li metal plating/stripping behavior. Guided by this stable environmentally friendly LiPLA SEI, the Li anode shows excellent stability with suppressive dendrites as demonstrated by a stable cycling of 850 h in LiPLA-Li/LiPLA-Li symmetric batteries and a significant capacity retention rate enhancement of 18% in iPLA-Li/LiFePO4 full batteries and 25% in LiPLA-Li/LiNi3/5Co1/5-Mn1/5O2 full batteries. This proposed strategy provides a green and facile way to ameliorate the stability of the Li anode for safe and long-life lithium metal batteries.