Integrative design of laser-induced graphene array with lithiophilic MnOx nanoparticles enables superior lithium metal batteries

The practical applications of lithium metal batteries are limited by uncontrolled dendrite growth during cycling. Herein, we propose a simple and scalable approach to stabilize lithium metal anodes using laser scribing technology to integratively design and construct a laser-induced graphene (LIG) with lithiophilic metal oxide nanoparticles. The porous LIG and lithiophilic MnO_x nanoparticles effectively reduce the nucleation overpotential of Li and regulate uniform Li plating, while the array structure offers continuous and ultra-fast ion/electron transport channels, accelerating Li⁺ transport kinetics at high rate and high capacity. Consequently, the Li@MnO_x@LIG-a anode exhibits superior rate capability of up to 40 ​mA ​cm⁻² with low nucleation overpotential. It also can withstand ultra-high Li capacity to 20 mAh cm⁻² without dendrite growth and stably cycle for 3000 ​h with 100% depth of discharge at 40 ​mA ​cm⁻². More importantly, this technology can be expanded to other metal oxides for various metal batteries.