Nonplanar Electrode Architectures for Ultrahigh Areal Capacity Batteries

We report on the design of a battery electrode architecture in which ion and electronic transport pathways are contiguous and span the entire volume of a thick, nonplanar electrode. It is shown that for a range of active materials conductivities, the length scale for electronic transport in such an architecture can be tuned by simple manipulations of the electrode design to enable good access to the active material. The benefits of such electrodes for basic science research and practical lithium metal batteries are demonstrated in low-N:P ratio cells in which a conventional (300-800 μm) Li foil is successfully cycled with LiCoO₂ cathodes with high areal capacities (10-28 mAh/cm²).