Fusing Ta-doped Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 grains using nanoscale Y 2 O 3 sintering aids for high-performance solid-state lithium batteries.

Solid-state lithium batteries have advantages of high energy density and usage safety and are considered as promising next-generation power sources. Among them, the garnet-type oxide electrolyte has become a widely studied inorganic electrolyte due to its high ionic conductivity and chemical stability. In this paper, nanoscale Y 2 O 3 (NYO) particles are introduced as sintering aids for fabricating Ta-doped Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 (LLZTO) ceramics, and the sintering effects of various NYO ratios on the properties of LLZTO are investigated. Among the samples, the LLZTO-5%NYO sample exhibits the highest ionic conductivity (7.39 × 10 -4 S cm -1 ) and the lowest activation energy (0.17 eV). At various current densities, the polarization voltage of LLZTO-5%NYO is also the lowest without a short circuit. The full cells of LFP|LLZTO-5%NYO|Li exhibit a high capacity of 163.9 mA h g -1 with a high initial coulombic efficiency of 97.4%, and the capacity retention rate is up to 98.1% after 50 cycles. This work may inspire the development of analogous solid-state electrolytes and lithium batteries.