Role of amorphous boundary layer in enhancing ionic conductivity of lithium-lanthanum-titanate electrolyte

The low ionic conductivity is a bottleneck of the inorganic solid state electrolyte used for lithium ion battery. In ceramic electrolytes, grain boundary usually dominates the total conductivity. In order to improve the grain boundary effect, an amorphous silica layer is introduced into grain boundary of ceramic electrolytes based on lithium-lanthanum-titanate, as evidenced by electron microscopy. The results showed that the total ionic conductivity could be to be enhanced over 1 × 10⁻⁴ S/cm at room temperature. The reasons can be attributed to removing the anisotropy of outer-shell of grains, supplement of lithium ions in various sites in grain boundary and close bindings among grains by the amorphous boundary layer among grains.