Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity
Source abstract
Abstract
Abstract Dendritic lithium growth on the current collector remains a major obstacle to developing anode‐less batteries, arising from inhomogeneous lithium nucleation and uneven surface lithiophilicity. Existing approaches, such as metallic or carbonaceous interlayers, often fail to stabilize lithium deposition due to mechanical degradation or spatial variations in lithium affinity. Here, we demonstrate that a monolayer amorphous carbon (MAC) film—a single‐atom‐thick disordered sp 2 network grown directly on copper—can fundamentally alter lithium nucleation behavior. The topological disorder of MAC produces a dense distribution of electron‐rich sites that uniformly strengthen lithium binding. As a result, the MAC surface exhibits a lithium contact angle of 31 ± 5°, four times lower than that of graphene and nearly three times lower than that of bare copper, leading to homogeneous wetting and deposition. Electrochemical tests reveal a reduced nucleation overpotential of 28.9 mV at 0.5 mA cm −2 . Density functional theory and scanning tunneling microscopy confirm that disorder‐induced localization of states near the Fermi level enhances electronegativity and forms continuous lithium‐binding sites. These findings establish intrinsic structural disorder, rather than chemical doping, as an effective route to designing uniformly lithiophilic current collectors for next‐generation anode‐less batteries.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Advanced Battery Materials and Technologies · Advancements in Battery Materials · Graphene research and applications
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Department of Materials Science and Engineering National University of Singapore Singapore 117575 Singapore
Institute of Physics Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Lausanne CH‐1015 Switzerland
Department of Physics National University of Singapore Singapore 117551 Singapore
Division of Physics and Applied Physics School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Nanyang Technological University Singapore 637371 Singapore
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Bolshoy Boulevard 30, bldg. 1 Moscow 121205 Russia
Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials National University of Singapore Singapore 117544 Singapore
Department of Physics State Key Laboratory of Quantum Functional Materials and Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Quantum Science Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) Shenzhen 518055 China
Sanken Osaka University Ibaraki 567‐0047 Japan
Centre for Advanced 2D Material Singapore National University of Singapore Singapore 117546 Singapore
Research & Development Center Saudi Aramco, Dhahran 31311 Saudi Arabia
Funding
Japan Science and Technology Agency · Ministry of Education - Singapore · Economic Development Board - Singapore · National Research Foundation Singapore
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