Augmented conductivity in Li3xLa2/3-xTiO3 nanoparticles: all-solid-state Li-ion battery applications

The perovskite Li3xLa2/3-xTiO3 (LLTO) solid electrolyte is prepared by sol-gel and microwave-assisted sol-gel method and sintering process. The effect of microwave radiation is well pronounced in the morphology of the samples sintered for various durations. The cubic morphology holds good for all the LLTO samples irrespective of the preparation procedures and the same is ensured by Rietveld process. Raman analysis further clarifies the structural aspects of all the LLTO samples. The effect of microwave treatment for 1-h duration on the composition of Li/La elements is comparatively analyzed with sol-gel-processed LLTO by ICP-AES analysis. From ICP-AES results, it is clear that, microwave treatment preserves the Li concentration in the LLTO matrix compared to sol-gel process. The LLTO prepared by microwave-assisted method and sintering process for 1-h duration yields superior ionic conductivity in the range of 1.05 x 10(-3) S cm(-1) compared to the other LLTO samples which is in the range of highest values reported for this material. Also, higher electrochemical activity is observed for the LLTO sample treated in microwave radiation for an hour of duration. The salient feature about this work is its rapidity in achieving high-performance LLTO nanoparticles within 100 min of duration.