We report a solid-state Li-ion electrolyte predicted to exhibit simultaneously fast ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical stability, low cost, and low mass density. We report exceptional DFT-based room temperature single crystal… Click to show full abstract
We report a solid-state Li-ion electrolyte predicted to exhibit simultaneously fast ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical stability, low cost, and low mass density. We report exceptional DFT-based room temperature single crystal ionic conductivity values for two phases within the crystalline lithium-boron-sulfur (Li-B-S) system: 62 (+9, -2) mS cm-1 in Li5B7S13 and 80 (-56, -41) mS cm-1 in Li9B19S33. We report significant ionic conductivity values for two additional phases: between 0.0056 - 0.16 mS/cm mS cm-1 in Li2B2S5, and between 0.0031- 9.7 mS cm-1 in Li3BS3 depending on the room temperature extrapolation scheme used. To our knowledge, our prediction gives Li9B19S33 and Li5B7S13 the second- and third-highest reported DFT-computed single crystal ionic conductivities of any crystalline material. We compute the thermodynamic electrochemical stability window widths of these materials to be: 0.50 V for Li5B7S13, 0.16 V Li2B2S5, 0.45 V for Li3BS3, and 0.60 V for Li9B19S33. Individually, these materials exhibit similar or better ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability than the best known sulfide-based solid-state Li-ion electrolyte materials, including Li10GeP2S12. However, we predict that electrolyte materials synthesized from a range of compositions in Li-B-S system may exhibit even wider thermodynamic electrochemical stability windows of 0.63 V and possibly as high as 3 V or greater. The Li-B-S system also has low elemental cost of approximately 0.05 USD/m2 per 10 μm thickness, significantly lower than that of germanium-containing LGPS, and a comparable mass density below 2 g/cc. These fast conducting phases were initially brought to our attention by a machine learning-based approach to screen over 12,000 solid electrolyte candidates, and the evidence provided here represents an inspiring success for this model.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.