Greenhouse gas emissions leads to widespread environmental concerns so that the demands for renewable energy sources have been increased. Hence, rechargeable batteries such as Ni-Cd, Pb-acid, NiMH and lithium-based have great importance to respond energy demands. Among those, lithium-ion batteries (~ ۲۶۵ Wh.kg-۱) attracted great attention due to their high energy density, long cycle life, high voltage, environmentally friendly and high safety. But since these energy storages utilize low-capacity graphite anodes, a new generation of lithium batteries such as lithium sulfur (Li-S; ۲۶۰۰ Wh.kg-۱) and lithium oxygen (Li-O۲; ۱۱۴۳۰ Wh.kg-۱) have been introduced. Particularly, these promising candidates can compete with energy density released by gasoline (۱۳۰۰۰ Wh.kg-۱). These batteries consisted of lithium metal anode, non-aqueous electrolyte and carbonaceous cathode. However, due to interaction of carbon and intermediate species such as Li۲O and Li۲O۲ and formation of Li۲CO۳ species during charge-discharge cycles, the cavities on the cathode surface are blocked and leads to decrease of battery performance. On the other hand, binders can decompose the electrolyte composition by formation of LiOH and LiF products. Therefore, the use of new methods to prepare binder-free and carbon-free electrodes have gained great attention by researchers. Thus, a lot of effort has been made to introduce different alternatives such as Al, Cu and Ni foams. Meanwhile, nickel foam is more economical than other metallic substrates and will provide better thermal stability. In addition, its ۳D structure can create many diffusion pathways for Li insertion/extraction processes which facilitate OER/ORR kinetics. Furthermore, it can provide suitable mechanical strength accompanied with good adhesion of electrode materials to the surface of nickel in comparison to other metal foams. Moreover, utilization of nickel foam as interlayer in Li-S batteries can facilitate shuttle phenomenon and movement of polysulfide species during battery cycling. In this paper, we reviewed the evaluation of nickel foam as cathode, anode or interlayer in Li-ion, Li-O۲ and Li-S batteries during last decade in order to introduce beneficial solutions to ameliorate the performance of next generation lithium-based batteries.