X-ray Nanoimaging of Crystal Defects in Single Grains of Solid-State Electrolyte Li<sub>7–3<i>x</i></sub>Al<sub><i>x</i></sub>La<sub>3</sub>Zr<sub>2</sub>O<sub>12</sub>
Yifei Sun, Oleg Yu. Gorobstov, Linqin Mu, Daniel Weinstock, Ryan Bouck, Wonsuk Cha, Nikolaos Bouklas, Feng Lin, Andrej Singer
Abstract
(LLZO) solid-state electrolyte shows excellent potential given its high ionic conductivity and good thermal, chemical, and electrochemical stability. Nevertheless, further improvements on electrochemical and mechanical properties of LLZO call for an in-depth understanding of its local microstructure. Here, we employ Bragg coherent diffractive imaging to investigate the atomic displacements inside single grains of LLZO with various Al-doping concentrations, resulting in cubic, tetragonal, and cubic-tetragonal mixed structures. We observe coexisting domains of different crystallographic orientations in the tetragonal structure. We further show that Al doping leads to crystal defects such as dislocations and phase boundaries in the mixed- and cubic-phase grain. This study addresses the effect of Al doping on the nanoscale structure within individual grains of LLZO, which is informative for the future development of solid-state batteries.