Energy Storage Science and Technology ›› 2023, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (5): 1625-1635.doi: 10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2022.0646

• Energy Storage Materials and Devices • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The influences of multifactors in the synthesis progress on the characteristics of lithium lanthanum zirconate solid electrolytes

Lei LEI1(), Peng GAO1, Nana FENG2, Kunpeng CAI1, Hai ZHANG1, Yang ZHANG1,2()   

  1. 1.Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
    2.Shanxi Research Institute for Clean Energy Tsinghua University, Taiyuan 030000, Shanxi, China
  • Received:2022-11-02 Revised:2022-11-20 Online:2023-05-05 Published:2023-05-29
  • Contact: Yang ZHANG E-mail:lei_lei@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn;yang-zhang@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Abstract:

Lithium lanthanum zirconate (Li7La3Zr2O12, LLZO) solid-state electrolytes were synthesized using the chemical coprecipitation method. The effects of the operation parameters of the sintering process, ball milling, Al doping, and compression force on the grain boundary, phase, densification, and final Li+ ion conductivity were evaluated using various characterization techniques, e.g., scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analyses. Wet ball milling using isopropanol as a grinding aid or hot-pressed sintering is beneficial for improving the density of LLZO pellets. However, the Li+ ion conductivities at room temperature of the samples is low due to their poor structures. The cubic phase structure (c-LLZO) was synthesized via dry ball milling and pressure less sintering, and the crystal structures became pure as the sintering temperature increased. To solve the subsequent problem of the grain coarsening, a two-step sintering was proposed instead of one-step sintering to synthesize LLZO electrolytes with small particle sizes and high relative density. At the same time, the effect of Al doping in stabilizing the cubic structure was also enhanced using the two-step sintering. Finally, the as-prepared Al-doped LLZO solid-state electrolyte obtained via dry ball milling, cold pressing at 750 MPa, and two-step sintering of 1100 ℃ for 6 h and 1200 ℃ for 20 h exhibited the highest ionic conductivity (1.52×10-4 S/cm), mainly owing to its cubic garnet structure and the highest relative density. This research will shed light on preparing and applying LLZO-related ceramic materials, providing a solid basis and guidance for developing solid-state battery technology.

Key words: solid-state electrolytes, chemical co-precipitation, high-temperature sintering, Al doping, ball milling

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