Thermally Conductive AlN-Network Shield for Separators to Achieve Dendrite-Free Plating and Fast Li-Ion Transport toward Durable and High-Rate Lithium-Metal Anodes

Lithium-metal anodes suffer from inadequate rate and cycling performances for practical application mainly due to the harmful dendrite growth, especially at high currents. Herein a facile construction of the porous and robust network with thermally conductive AlN nanowires onto the commercial polypropylene separator by convenient vacuum filtration is reported. The so-constructed AlN-network shield provides a uniform thermal distribution to realize homogeneous Li deposition, super electrolyte-philic channels to enhance Li-ion transport, and also a physical barrier to resist dendrite piercing as the last fence. Consequently, the symmetric Li vertical bar Li cell presents an ultralong lifetime over 8000 h (20 mA cm(-2), 3 mAh cm(-2)) and over 1000 h even at an unprecedented high rate (80 mA cm(-2), 80 mAh cm(-2)), which is far surpassing the corresponding performances reported to date. The corresponding Li vertical bar LiFePO4 cell delivers a high specific capacity of 84.3 mAh g(-1) at 10 C. This study demonstrates an efficient approach with great application potential toward durable and high-power Li-metal batteries and even beyond.