Fast Room‐Temperature Mg‐Ion Conduction in Clay‐Like Halide Glassy Electrolytes
Xiaochen Yang, Sunny Gupta, Yu Chen, Doğancan Sarı, Han‐Ming Hau, Zijian Cai, Chaochao Dun, Miao Qi, Lu Ma, Yi Liu, Jeffrey J. Urban, Gerbrand Ceder
Abstract
Abstract The discovery of mechanically soft solid‐state materials with fast Mg‐ion conduction is crucial for the development of solid‐state magnesium batteries. In this paper, novel magnesium gallium halide compounds are reported that achieve high ionic conductivity of 0.47 mS cm −1 at room temperature. These Mg‐ion conductors obtained by ball milling Mg and Ga salts exhibit clay‐like mechanical properties, enabling intimate contact at the electrode–electrolyte interface during battery cycling. With a combination of experimental and computational analysis, this study identifies that the soft‐clay formation is induced by partial anion exchange during milling. This partial anion exchange creates undercoordinated magnesium ions in a chlorine‐rich environment, yielding fast Mg‐ion conduction. This work demonstrates the potential of clay‐like halide electrolytes for all‐solid‐state magnesium batteries, with possible further extension to other multivalent battery systems.