Highly Conductive Li Garnets by a Multielement Doping Strategy

• Published in: Inorganic chemistry 2015-04, Vol.54 (7), p.3600-3607
• Main Authors: Tong, Xia, Thangadurai, Venkataraman, Wachsman, Eric D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum; Diffraction; Doping; Garnets; Lithium; Metal oxides; Parents; Spinning
• ISSN: 0020-1669; 1520-510X
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.5b00184

Highly conductive Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZ) garnet-type solid electrolytes were further optimized to improve Li-ion conduction by La3+-sites substitution with Ba2+ and Zr4+-sites substitution with Ta5+ and Nb5+. Garnet-structured metal oxides of the nominal chemical compositions Li6.65La2.75Ba0.25Zr1.4Ta0.5Nb0.1O12, Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6–x Nb x O12 (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3), and the parent LLZ, as a reference, were prepared via conventional solid-state reaction to investigate the effect of multielement doping on ionic conductivity. The phase formation, morphology, and Li ion conductivity were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy, and alternating current impedance spectroscopy methods, respectively. In addition, solid-state 27Al and 7Li magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR was used to study the effect of “Al doping” on the investigated multielement doped Li-stuffed garnet metal oxides. All the prepared samples obtained the cubic garnet-type structure (space group: Ia3̅d; No. 230) at 1150 °C, similar to that of cubic LLZ. Except for Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12, all the members show Al content by Al MAS NMR. However, it was not possible to detect Al-based impurity phases using PXRD in any of the investigated garnets. Among the samples investigated in this work, “Al-free” Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12 demonstrated a bulk Li ion conductivity of 0.72 mS cm–1 at 25 °C, with apparent activation energy of 0.26 eV, significantly higher than the parent LLZ.