Porous Metal Current Collectors for Alkali Metal Batteries

• Published in: Advanced science Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. e2205695 - n/a
• Main Authors: Chen, Jianyu, Wang, Yizhou, Li, Sijia, Chen, Huanran, Qiao, Xin, Zhao, Jin, Ma, Yanwen, Alshareef, Husam N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.01.2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: alkali metal anode; Batteries; Carbon; Collectors; current collector; Design; Electrolytes; Energy storage; fabrication method; Graphite; Metals; Nanomaterials; pore structure; porous metal; Review; Reviews; porous metal; alkali metal anode; current collector; pore structure; fabrication method
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202205695

Alkali metals (i.e., Li, Na, and K) are promising anode materials for next‐generation high‐energy‐density batteries due to their superior theoretical specific capacities and low electrochemical potentials. However, the uneven current and ion distribution on the anode surface probably induces undesirable dendrite growth, which leads to significant safety hazards and severely hinders the commercialization of alkali metal anodes. A smart and versatile strategy that can accommodate alkali metals into porous metal current collectors (PMCCs) has been well established to resolve the issues as well as to promote the practical applications of alkali metal anodes. Moreover, the proposal of PMCCs can meet the requirement of the dendrite‐free battery fabrication industry, while the electrode material loading exactly needs the metal current collector component as well. Here, a systematic survey on advanced PMCCs for Li, Na, and K alkali metal anodes is presented, including their development timeline, categories, fabrication methods, and working mechanism. On this basis, some significant methodology advances to control pore structure, surface area, surface wettability, and mechanical properties are systematically summarized. Further, the existing issues and the development prospects of PMCCs to improve anode performance in alkali metal batteries are discussed. This review provides significant advances on porous metal current collectors (PMCCs) for alkali metal batteries, including their working mechanism, development timeline, categories, fabrication methods, together with some significant methodology advances on pore structure design. It furthermore presents perspectives for the challenges and opportunities for the fabrication and application of PMCCs.