Abstract:Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are regarded as one of the most promising energy-storage systems for next-generation, but their practical application is still hindered by severe lithium dendrite growth. The key factors limiting long cycle life and high-rate performance are the scarcity of lithiophilic sites and their nonuniform distribution. Herein, we report a Li-rich lithium alloy formed via a simple molten-lithium alloying reaction, featuring uniformly dispersed Li9Al4 with strong lithiophilicity. This architecture provides abundant and uniformly distributed lithiophilic sites, ensuring homogeneous lithium plating/stripping and suppressing dendrite formation. As a result, the symmetric cells based on the anode deliver stable cycling for over 1200 h with a low overpotential of 56 mV, and the assembled full cells based on the anode maintain a capacity retention of 93.2% even after 400 cycles at 5 C, offering a scalable pathway toward high-rate lithium metal batteries.