Exploring inductive effects in superionic conductors

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Zeier
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis ; Physical Chemistry of Solids and Surfaces, Material Characterisation
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 498761047

Superionic conductors are materials that provide fast ion conduction similar to liquid electrolytes, and are currently investigated for the use in solid-state batteries. The typical investigation in solid ionic conductors focusses on substitutions that affect the structure of materials such as increasing the width of diffusion pathways or increasing the charge carrier density. However, not much is known how much the strength of bonding interactions affects the ionic transport. Recently, the idea that inductive effects affect ionic transport. In this rather intuitive hypothesis, the electronegativity of a central cation is thought to affect the average charge density of a polyanionic group, which in turn affects the electrostatic bonding interaction between the anionic framework and the mobile cations. Recent work has corroborated this idea of a solid electrolyte inductive and this proposal is based on exploring if a solid electrolyte inductive effect is indeed an influence found in a variety of solid ion conductors, or if it is just used to explain unexpected trends in materials. This work aims at a better fundamental understanding of how bonding influences affect electrostatic interactions and with it the ionic transport in solid ionic conductors. As a final approach, the work will evaluate if inductive effects can deliver a new promising design principle for ionically conducting solids.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants