Graphene can be used to make safer lithium-metal batteries

Researchers at Tsinghua University, China have devised a graphene-based nanostructured lithium metal anode for lithium metal batteries, to inhibit dendrite growth and improve electrochemistry performance.

New lithium metal anode batteries, like Li-S and Li-air batteries, are highly sought after, as lithium metal provides an extremely high theoretical specific capacity, which is almost 10 times more energy than graphite. The problem is that the practical applications of lithium metals are significantly hindered by lithium dendrite growth in continuous cycles. This induces safety concerns since it may cause internal short circuits resulting in fire. Furthermore, the formation of lithium dendrites induces very low cycling efficiency. This is why inhibiting the dendrites growth, as was attempted by the researchers in this study, is highly expected.