RESUMEN
The softness of sulfur sublattice and rotational PS4 tetrahedra in thiophosphates result in liquid-like ionic conduction, leading to enhanced ionic conductivities and stable electrode/thiophosphate interfacial ionic transport. However, the existence of liquid-like ionic conduction in rigid oxides remains unclear, and modifications are deemed necessary to achieve stable Li/oxide solid electrolyte interfacial charge transport. In this study, by combining the neutron diffraction survey, geometrical analysis, bond valence site energy analysis, and ab initio molecular dynamics simulation, 1D liquid-like Li-ion conduction is discovered in LiTa2 PO8 and its derivatives, wherein Li-ion migration channels are connected by four- or five-fold oxygen-coordinated interstitial sites. This conduction features a low activation energy (0.2 eV) and short mean residence time (<1 ps) of Li ions on the interstitial sites, originating from the Li-O polyhedral distortion and Li-ion correlation, which are controlled by doping strategies. The liquid-like conduction enables a high ionic conductivity (1.2 mS cm-1 at 30 °C), and a 700 h anomalously stable cycling under 0.2 mA cm-2 for Li/LiTa2 PO8 /Li cells without interfacial modifications. These findings provide principles for the future discovery and design of improved solid electrolytes that do not require modifications to the Li/solid electrolyte interface to achieve stable ionic transport.
RESUMEN
Electrochemical characteristics such as open-circuit voltage and ionic conductivity of electrochemical energy storage materials are easily affected, typically negatively, by mobile ion/vacancy ordering. Ordered phases can be identified based on the lattice gas model and electrostatic energy screening. However, the evaluation of long-range electrostatic energy is not straightforward because of the conditional convergence. The Ewald method decomposes the electrostatic energy into a real space part and a reciprocal space part, achieving a fast convergence in each. Due to its high computational efficiency, Ewald-based techniques are widely used in analyzing characteristics of electrochemical energy storage materials. In this work, we present software not only integrating Ewald techniques for two-dimensional and three-dimensional periodic systems but also combining the Ewald method with the lattice matching algorithm and bond valence. It is aimed to become a useful tool for screening stable structures and interfaces and identifying the ionic transport channels of cation conductors.
RESUMEN
Geometric crystal structure analysis using three-dimensional Voronoi tessellation provides intuitive insights into the ionic transport behavior of metal-ion electrode materials or solid electrolytes by mapping the void space in a framework onto a network. The existing tools typically consider only the local voids by mapping them with Voronoi polyhedra vertices and then define the mobile ions pathways using the Voronoi edges connecting these vertices. We show that in some structures mobile ions are located on Voronoi polyhedra faces and thus cannot be located by a standard approach. To address this deficiency, we extend the method to include Voronoi faces in the constructed network. This method has been implemented in the CAVD python package. Its effectiveness is demonstrated by 99% recovery rate for the lattice sites of mobile ions in 6,955 Li-, Na-, Mg- and Al-containing ionic compounds extracted from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. In addition, various quantitative descriptors of the network can be used to identify and rank the materials and further used in materials databases for machine learning.
RESUMEN
The combination of a materials database with high-throughput ion-transport calculations is an effective approach to screen for promising solid electrolytes. However, automating the complicated preprocessing involved in currently widely used ion-transport characterization algorithms, such as the first-principles nudged elastic band (FP-NEB) method, remains challenging. Here, we report on high-throughput screening platform for solid electrolytes (SPSE) that integrates a materials database with hierarchical ion-transport calculations realized by implementing empirical algorithms to assist in FP-NEB completing automatic calculation. We first preliminarily screen candidates and determine the approximate ion-transport paths using empirical both geometric analysis and the bond valence site energy method. A chain of images are then automatically generated along these paths for accurate FP-NEB calculation. In addition, an open web interface is actualized to enable access to the SPSE database, thereby facilitating machine learning. This interactive platform provides a workflow toward high-throughput screening for future discovery and design of promising solid electrolytes and the SPSE database is based on the FAIR principles for the benefit of the broad research community.
RESUMEN
Introduction of inorganic solid electrolytes is believed to be an ultimate strategy to dismiss dendritic Li in high-energy Li-metal batteries (LMBs), and garnet-type Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) electrolytes are impressive candidates. However, the current density for stable Li plating/stripping in LLZO is still quite limited. Here, we create in situ formed Li-deficient shields by the high-temperature calcination at 900 °C. By this novel process, the formation of Li2CO3 on LLZO is restrained, and then we successfully obtain Li2CO3-free LLZO after removing the Li-deficient compounds. Without any surface modification, Li2CO3-free LLZO shows an intrinsic "lithiophilicity" characteristic. The contact angles of metallic Li on LLZO garnets are assessed by the first-principle calculation to confirm the lithiophilicity characteristic of LLZO electrolytes. The wetting of metallic Li on the Li2CO3-free LLZO surface leads to a continuous and tight Li/LLZO interface, resulting in an ultralow interfacial resistance of 49 Ω cm2 and a homogeneous current distribution in the charge/discharge processes of LMBs. Consequently, the current density for the stable Li plating/stripping in LLZO increases to 900 µA cm-2 at 60 °C, one of the highest current density for LMBs based on garnet-type LLZO electrolytes. Our findings not only offer insight into the lithiophilicity characteristics of LLZO electrolytes to suppress dendritic Li at high current densities but also expand the avenue toward high-performance, safe, and long-life energy-storage systems.