Highly Lithiophilic Cobalt Nitride Nanobrush as a Stable Host for High-Performance Lithium Metal Anodes.

Lithium metal is considered to be a holy grail of the battery anode chemistry due to its large specific capacity. Nevertheless, the uncontrollable formation of lithium dendrites resulting from uneven lithium nucleation/growth and the associated safety risk and short cyclability severely impede the practical use of lithium metal anodes. Herein, we demonstrate a highly lithiophilic cobalt nitride nanobrush on a Ni foam (CoN/NF) current collector as a stable three-dimensional (3D) framework to inhibit the dendrite formation of lithium.