Surface Functionalization of a Conventional Polypropylene Separator with an Aluminum Nitride Layer toward Ultrastable and High-Rate Lithium Metal Anodes.

Lithium (Li) metal as a next-generation anode has received great interest from industry and academic institutes due to its attractive benefits of a high theoretical capacity (3860 mAh g) and the lowest negative potential (-3.04 V vs SHE) among the anode candidates. However, major issues associated with dendritic Li growth, infinite volume expansion of Li, and low Coulombic efficiency cause severely degraded cycle stabilities and fatal safety issues (such as short-circuit).