Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity
 
research article

Monolayer Amorphous Carbon: Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity

Shi, Lu
•
Zhang, Hanning  
•
Grebenko, Artem K.
Show more
November 25, 2025
Advanced Science

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.

  • Files
  • Details
  • Metrics
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name

Advanced Science - 2025 - Shi - Monolayer Amorphous Carbon Unlocking Disorder‐Induced Lithiophilicity.pdf

Type

Main Document

Version

Published version

Access type

openaccess

License Condition

CC BY

Size

2.36 MB

Format

Adobe PDF

Checksum (MD5)

f7c211e31c15f162da72d973b470825f

Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés