Anion Engineering for Stabilizing Li Interstitial Sites in Halide Solid Electrolytes for All-Solid-State Li Batteries

Abstract

Halide solid electrolytes (SEs) have been highlighted for their high-voltage stability. Among the halide SEs, the ionic conductivity has been improved by aliovalent metal substitutions or choosing a ccp-like anion-arranged monoclinic structure ( C 2/ m ) over hcp- or bcc-like anion-arranged structures. Here, we present a new approach, hard-base substitution, and its underlying mechanism to increase the ionic conductivity of halide SEs. The oxygen substitution to Li 2 ZrCl 6 (trigonal, hcp) increased the ionic conductivity from 0.33 to 1.3 mS cm –1 at Li 3.1 ZrCl 4.9 O 1.1 (monoclinic, ccp), while the sulfur and fluorine substitutions were not effective. A systematic comparison study revealed that the energetic stabilization of interstitial sites for Li migration plays a key role in improving the ionic conductivity, and the ccp-like anion sublattice is not sufficient to achieve high ionic conductivity. We further examined the feasibility of the oxyhalide SE for practical and all-solid-state battery applications.