Investigating ionic liquids for optimizing lithium metal anode

Developing renewable energy technology is an effective way to address the global warming and air pollution problems derived from depleting fossil fuels. Due to the high theoretical capacity (3860 mAh g^-1) and low electrochemical potential of lithium metal anode, lithium metal batteries (LMBs) have attracted tremendous research attention with the scalable application and vigorous deployment of electric vehicles. Unfortunately, the further commercialization of Li metal anode is hindered by the random growth of Li dendrites during the lithium plating/stripping processes, leading to the continuous consumption of active Li and the puncture on the separator. Just recently, Ma's group proposed a new approach to systematically investigate the relationship between functional groups and Li dendrite generation during the Li plating/stripping processes. The proposed new approach could be of an effective tool to gain new insights into functional groups in the electrolyte additives and Li dendrites formation, highly valuable for the rational structural design of highperformance Li metal electrode materials.