Design principles for solid-state lithium superionic conductors.
Lithium solid electrolytes can potentially address two key limitations of the organic electrolytes used in today's lithium-ion batteries, namely, their flammability and limited electrochemical stability. However, achieving a Li(+) conductivity in the solid state comparable to existing liquid electrolytes (>1 mS cm(-1)) is particularly challenging. In this work, we reveal a fundamental relationship between anion packing and ionic transport in fast Li-conducting materials and expose the desirable structural attributes of good Li-ion conductors. We find that an underlying body-centred cubic-like anion framework, which allows direct Li hops between adjacent tetrahedral sites, is most desirable for achieving high ionic conductivity, and that indeed this anion arrangement is present in several known fast Li-conducting materials and other fast ion conductors. These findings provide important insight towards the understanding of ionic transport in Li-ion conductors and serve as design principles for future discovery and design of improved electrolytes for Li-ion batteries.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Yan
Y
Wang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
William Davidson
WD
Richards
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.|Department of NanoEngineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Shyue Ping
SP
Ong
Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology-USA, 1 Cambridge Center, Suite 702, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
Lincoln J
LJ
Miara
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Jae Chul
JC
Kim
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park Maryland 20742, USA.
Yifei
Y
Mo
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.|Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Gerbrand
G
Ceder