The formation of LiAl5O8 nanowires from bulk Li-Al alloy enables dendrite-free Li metal batteries

Lithium metal has been regarded as an ideal anode to meet the rapidly growing requirements on high energy density batteries , owing to their highest gravimetric capacity and their lowest redox potential . However, lithium metal batteries persistently suffer from serious issues, such as the unstable solid electrolyte layer and uncontrolled dendrite growth during plating/stripping, especially under high current density . Herein, we developed an innovative method to prepare dense LiAl 5 O 8 nanowires membrane and designed a LiAl 5 O 8 nanowires membrane/poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene)-based gel polymer composite electrolyte (LPH-GPE) to address these issues. On the interface of LPH-GPE and lithium anode, uniformly dispersed aluminum is in situ generated by reducing LiAl 5 O 8 nanowires, which brings both superlithiophilic sites and uniform lithium ion flux, and thus enables the lithium ion depositing in plates rather than forming sharp lithium dendrites . The solid-state lithium/lithium symmetric cells with LPH-GPE exhibit significantly improved lifespan at 0.5 mA cm − 2 and short-circuit does not occur even at current density up to 4 mA cm − 2 .