Abstract The development of all‐solid‐state Li‐ion batteries requires solid electrolyte materials with many desired properties, such as ionic conductivity, chemical and electrochemical stability, and mechanical durability. Computation‐guided materials design techniques are advantageous in designing and identifying new solid electrolytes that can simultaneously meet these requirements. In this joint computational and experimental study, a new family of fast lithium ion conductors, namely, LiTaSiO5with sphene structure, are successfully identified, synthesized, and demonstrated using a novel computational design strategy. First‐principles computation predicts that Zr‐doped LiTaSiO5sphene materials have fast Li diffusion, good phase stability, and poor electronic conductivity, which are ideal for solid electrolytes. Experiments confirm that Zr‐doped LiTaSiO5sphene structure indeed exhibits encouraging ionic conductivity. The lithium diffusion mechanisms in this material are also investigated, indicating the sphene materials are 3D conductors with facile 1D diffusion along the [101] direction and additional cross‐channel migration. This study demonstrates a novel design strategy of activating fast Li ionic diffusion in lithium sphenes, a new materials family of superionic conductors.
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Collective Ion Dynamics in Ionic Plastic Crystals: The Origin of Conductivity Suppression
Organic ionic plastic crystals (OIPCs) appear as promising materials to replace traditional liquid electrolytes, especially for use in solid state batteries. However, OIPCs show low conductive properties relative to liquid electrolytes, which presents an obstacle for their widespread applications. Recent studies revealed very high ion mobility in solid phases of OIPCs, yet the ionic conductivity is significantly (~100 times) suppressed because of strong ion-ion correlations. To understand the origin of the ion-ion correlations in OIPCs, we employed broadband dielectric spectroscopy, light scattering and NMR diffusion measurements in liquid and solid phases of Hexafluorophosphate - Diethyl(methyl)(isobutyl)phosphonium [PF6][P1,2,2,4]. The results confirmed significant decrease in conductivity of solid phases of this OIPC through ion-ion correlations. Surprisingly, these ionic correlations suppress charge displacement on rather long time scales comparable to the time of ion diffusion on the ~1.5 nm length scale. We ascribe the observed phenomena to momentum conservation in motion of mobile anions and emphasize that microscopic understanding of these correlations might enable design of OIPCs with strongly enhanced ionic conductivity.
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- PAR ID:
- 10512894
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- Volume:
- 127
- Issue:
- 32
- ISSN:
- 1932-7447
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 15918 to 15927
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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