La2Zr2O7 Nanoparticle-Mediated Synthesis of Porous Al-Doped Li7La3Zr2O12 Garnet

In this work, we modified the reaction pathway to quickly (minutes) incorporate lithium and stabilize the ionic conducting garnet phase by decoupling the formation of a La-Zr-O network from the addition of lithium. To do this, we synthesized La2Zr2O7 (LZO) nanoparticles to which LiNO3 was added. This method is a departure from typical solid-state synthesis methods that require high-energy milling to promote mixing and intimate particle-particle contact and from sol-gel syntheses as a unique porous microstructure is obtained. We show that the reaction time is limited by the rate of nitrate decomposition and that this method produces a porous high-Li-ion-conducting cubic phase, within an hour, that may be used as a starting structure for a composite electrolyte.

Automated summary

This work presents a new method to quickly incorporate lithium and stabilize the ionic conducting garnet phase by decoupling the formation of a La-Zr-O network from the addition of lithium. By synthesizing La2Zr2O7 nanoparticles to which LiNO3 was added, the method produces a porous high-Li-ion-conducting cubic phase within an hour, which can be used as a starting structure for a composite electrolyte.