# Durable Lithium Metal Anodes Enabled by {110}‐Textured Epitaxy on a LiF@Ag Commensurate Heterostructure

## TL;DR

A new LiF@Ag heterostructure enables stable, dendrite-free lithium metal anodes with improved performance for energy storage.

## Contribution

A LiF@Ag commensurate heterostructure is introduced to synergistically control Li deposition thermodynamics and kinetics.

## Key findings

- The LiF@Ag heterostructure prevents Li-Ag alloying and maintains lithiophilic Ag nanoparticles.
- The structure promotes ultra-dense, dendrite-free {110}-textured Li deposition with enhanced cycle life.
- The design improves coulombic efficiency and high-rate capability in Li metal full cells.

## Abstract

Lithium metal anodes (LMAs) hold great promise for high‐energy storage, but their practical application is hindered by challenges such as Li dendrite growth and unstable solid electrolyte interphase. Designing heteroepitaxial substrates to guide {110}‐textured Li growth is a promising strategy to suppress dendrite formation and parasitic reactions. LiF and Ag are potential candidates owing to their low lattice mismatch with Li, whilst the former lacks sufficient lithiophilicity and the latter suffers from Li‐Ag alloying. A LiF@Ag commensurate heterostructure composed of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) uniformly grown on 2D LiF layers is hence proposed, where the composition pinning effect prevents Li‐Ag alloying and stabilizes the lithiophilic Ag NPs upon Li plating. Meanwhile, Ag contributes to a significantly reduced Li adatom diffusion barrier compared with LiF, providing a synergistic effect of low lattice mismatch and improved interfacial dynamics to promote Li heteroepitaxy. Ultra‐dense and dendrite‐free Li heteroepitaxial deposition with prominent {110} texture is achieved, which enables improved coulombic efficiency, enhanced high‐rate capability, and prolonged cycle life in Li metal full cells with a low negative‐to‐positive ratio. The results demonstrate that constructing commensurate heterostructures offers a new synergistic strategy to regulate both deposition thermodynamics and kinetics toward high‐performance {110}‐textured LMAs.

Utilizing their commensurate lattices, a LiF@Ag heterostructure is fabricated for Li epitaxy, featuring Ag nanoparticles grown on 2D LiF layers. The composition pinning effect inhibits Li‐Ag alloying and maintains the high lithiophilicity and fast adatom migration associated with Ag. Enhanced {110}‐textured Li deposition with extended cycle life is achieved through the synergistic control of deposition thermodynamics and kinetics.