Project Details
Projekt Print View

Lattice dynamics in ionic conductors

Subject Area Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis
Term from 2017 to 2024
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 386845162
 
Final Report Year 2023

Final Report Abstract

Solid ionic conductors are a class of functional materials that are currently being discussed as a possible replacement of liquid electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries. While a variety of approaches to increase ionic transport are known and understood well, the influence of a dynamic lattice has so far not been explored systematically. In other words, it is unclear how much lattice vibration and overall lattice softness/polarizability affect the ionic transport and interactions of the mobile cation species with the surrounding lattice. In this project, the hypothesis that a softer more polarizable anion sublattice lowers the activation barrier for ionic transport was investigated. A variety of different materials combinations, such as Li6PS5X with solid solutions from Cl to I via Br, Na3PS4-xSex, Li6PS5-xSexBr, Li10Ge1-xSnxPS12, Na11Sn2.1P0.9(S/Se)12, and Li6PS5-xSexI have been probed for their lattice dynamics, and have led to a broad variety of publications (16 in total). Within the project it was possible to show that indeed a synthetically induced softening of the anion lattice, by introducing softer and polarizable anions, leads to a decrease of the energy barrier that needs to be overcome for the ion to jump from one site to another. However, as a surprise, this does not necessarily lead to better ionic conductivity as the softening of the lattice affects other factors such as the jump frequency and entropy of migration. The lattice vibrations seem to link the activation barriers with the so-called Arrhenius pre-factor. Furthermore, a collaborative study showed that the lithium phonon band center can be used as a metric for finding superionic conductors. Halide-based material systems such as Li3ErCl6, Li3YCl6 and Li3ErI6 were investigated more in-depth in further publications. The results have led to a variety of questions and continuing projects such as (1) how can the Meyer-Neldel rule be overcome? (2) How much does the anharmonicity of lattice vibrations affect the entropy of migration? and (3) How do the phonons affect the ion transport and which phonons in particular? All these questions are currently be approached in projects within the group.

Publications

 
 

Additional Information

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung