Infinite volume expansion and uncontrolled lithium dendrite growth are the main bottlenecks that greatly hinder the commercial application of lithium metal anodes. Herein, derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-67, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-wrapped and CoP/Co₂P uniformly distributed nitrogen-doped hollow porous polyhedron carbon (CNT-CoP@NC) is elaborately designed as lithium metal host. A hybrid of N-doping and metallic phosphides modifications improves the lithiophilicity and reduces the nucleation barrier, consequently leading to homogeneous nucleation and smooth deposition of metallic lithium, thus suppresses the growth of Li dendrites. Meanwhile, self-generated CNTs arrays efficiently reduce the local current density. Moreover, the reduced lithium is preferentially deposited into the hollow structure of CNT-CoP@NC and then filled the voids among the CNT-CoP@NC particles. This all-pervasive Li plating design can not only alleviate the volume effect, but also maximize the anode space utilization. Benefiting from these synergistic modulations, even with an ultra-thin (7.2 μm) anode layer of CNT-CoP@NC host, a high Coulombic efficiency for more than 400 cycles and an extended lifespan of 1,700 h under 1 mA·cm⁻² can be achieved. When paired with a competitive high mass loading (17.1 mg·cm⁻²) LiFePO₄ cathode, a superb cycling stability (126.7 mAh·g⁻¹ over 550 cycles) is recorded at 1 C.

Lithium metal is a promising anode material for high energy density batteries, which is restricted from practical application by the issues including lithium dendrite, parasitic reaction and volumetric change. Herein, a strategy combing bulk and surface modification is proposed to address these problems. The bulk modification is to use Ni foam as three dimensional (3D) scaffold for direct infusion of molten Li resulting in the formation of Li-Ni composite anode, which reduces actual current density by increasing specific surface area and alleviates volumetric change in the process of Li stripping/plating. And the surface modification is to coat with ZnF₂ film via sputtering, which is acted as artificial protective layer for controlling interfacial side reaction. The symmetric cell consisting of ZnF₂ coated Li-Ni composite electrodes exhibits low overpotential (about 45 mV) and stable cycling over 900 h at 1 mA cm⁻². Furthermore, the cell with LiCoO₂ cathode delivers 110 mAh g⁻¹ at 1 C rate after 500 cycles.

Currently, many organic materials are being considered as electrode materials and display good electrochemical behavior. However, the most critical issues related to the wide use of organic electrodes are their low thermal stability and poor cycling performance due to their high solubility in electrolytes. Focusing on one of the most conventional carboxylate organic materials, namely lithium terephthalate Li₂C₈H₄O₄, we tackle these typical disadvantages via modifying its molecular structure by cation substitution. CaC₈H₄O₄ and Al₂(C₈H₄O₄)₃ are prepared via a facile cation exchange reaction. Of these, CaC₈H₄O₄ presents the best cycling performance with thermal stability up to 570 ℃ and capacity of 399 mA·h·g^-1, without any capacity decay in the voltage window of 0.005–3.0 V. The molecular, crystal structure, and morphology of CaC₈H₄O₄ are retained during cycling. This cation-substitution strategy brings new perspectives in the synthesis of new materials as well as broadening the applications of organic materials in Li/Na-ion batteries.