Discovery of the Li-Sr-La-Zr-O Compound and the Investigation of Its Lithium-Ion Conductivity

Single crystals of Li3.957Sr1.957La0.043ZrO6, having a new crystalstructure, were successfully grown in air using thefloating zone crystallizationmethod. The obtained crystals were colorless and had a rectangular shape with amaximum dimension of 8(phi)x50 mm. The elemental composition of the crystalwas determined via energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Single-crystal X-raystructure analysis revealed that the crystal was monoclinic, in space groupP21/n,with lattice parameters ofa= 5.7506 (2) A,b= 6.2968 (3) A,c= 8.4906 (3) A,and beta= 97.066 (1) deg. Crystal structure refinement using 652 independentreflections resulted in a confidence factor (R) of 1.78% and awRfactor of 2.57%.The AC-impedance measurement revealed that the lithium-ion conductivity of theLi3.957Sr1.957La0.043ZrO6single crystal at 298 K was 6.8x10-4S/cm, and theactivation energy calculated from the Arrhenius plot was 0.24 eV. The proposedsingle crystals exhibit significant potential for application as solid electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries at low temperatures.

Automated summary

In this study, single crystals of Li3.957Sr1.957La0.043ZrO6 with a new crystal structure were successfully grown using the floating zone crystallization method in air. The obtained crystals exhibited excellent lithium-ion conductivity and showed potential as solid electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries at low temperatures.