Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society (전기화학회지)

The Korean Electrochemical Society (한국전기화학회)
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The Effect of Lithia Addition on the Sodium Ion Conductivity of Vapor Phase Converted Na-β"-alumina/YSZ Solid Electrolytes

  • Sasidharanpillai, Arun (Department of Materials Engineering and Convergence Technology, Gyeongsang National University) ;
  • Kim, Hearan (Department of Materials Engineering and Convergence Technology, Gyeongsang National University) ;
  • Cho, Yebin (Department of Materials Engineering and Convergence Technology, Gyeongsang National University) ;
  • Kim, Dongyoung (Semiconductor R&D Center, Samsung Electronics) ;
  • Lee, Seungmi (Battery Materials Division, Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST)) ;
  • Jung, Keeyoung (Battery Materials Division, Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST)) ;
  • Lee, Younki (Department of Materials Engineering and Convergence Technology, Gyeongsang National University)
  • Received : 2022.11.23
  • Accepted : 2022.11.24
  • Published : 2022.11.30
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Abstract

Na-β"-Al2O3 has been widely employed as a solid electrolyte for high-temperature sodium (Na) beta-alumina batteries (NBBs) thanks to its superb thermal stability and high ionic conductivity. Recently, a vapor phase conversion (VPC) method has been newly introduced to fabricate thin Na-β"-Al2O3 electrolytes by converting α-Al2O3 into β"-Al2O3 in α-Al2O3/yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) composites under Na+ and O2- dual percolation environments. One of the main challenges that need to be figured out is lowered conductivity due to the large volume fraction of the non-Na+-conducting YSZ. In this study, the effect of lithia addition in the β"-Al2O3 phase on the grain size and ionic conductivity of Na-β"-Al2O3/YSZ solid electrolytes have been investigated in order to enhance the conductivity of the electrolyte. The amount of pre-added lithia (Li2O) precursor as a phase stabilizer was varied at 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 mol% against that of Al2O3. It turns out that ionic conductivity increases even with 1 mol% lithia addition and reaches 67 mS cm-1 at 350 ℃ of its maximum with 3 mol%, which is two times higher than that of the undoped composite.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education through the Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2020R1A6A1A03038697) and Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) through the International Cooperative R&D Program (P0018443, 2021).

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