Effects of Fluorine Doping on Structural and Electrochemical Properties of Li_6.25Ga_0.25La₃Zr₂O₁₂ as Electrolytes for Solid-State Lithium Batteries

Abstract

Solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs) are promising technologies with great potential in improving safety and energy density, compared with the traditional liquid based lithium ion batteries. However, the bottleneck of SSLBs lies in the issues of poor interface contact and low electrolyte conductivity. In this work, the crystal structure of garnet-type Li 6.25 Ga 0.25 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 (LGLZO) was engineered more rigidly with subdued atoms displacement by fluorine doping and thus smoother and faster lithium ion diffusion paths are formed. The ionic conductivity of garnet-type electrolyte is significantly increased from 5.43 × 10 –4 S/cm to 1.28 × 10 –3 S/cm at 25 °C and the activation energy is reduced from 0.33 to 0.28 eV. The solid-state symmetric cell consisting of F doped Li 6.25 Ga 0.25 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 electrolyte and lithium metal has lower resistance and displays stable lithium plating/stripping for over 650 h with smaller overpotentials than those on LGLZO electrolyte. Moreover, the all solid-state lithium battery with F-LGLZO electrolyte and LiFePO 4 composite electrode exhibits an improved rate capability, which can still keep 132.9 mAh/g at 1 C. Fluorine substitution in garnet-type electrolyte opens new avenues to design new solid-state electrolytes for practical applications of SSLBs.