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Ambient Temperature Superionic Conducting Salt Including Metal Cation and Borate Anion or Carborate Anion and Process for Making Ambient Temperature Superionic Conducting Salt

Patent Number: 10,553,897

Abstract

A process for making a superionic conducting salt includes: combining a primary salt and an impact member, the primary salt including an ordered phase and being an ionic conductor; impacting the primary salt with the impact member; and converting the primary salt to the superionic conducting salt in response to impacting the primary salt with the impact member at a conversion temperature to make the superionic conducting salt, the conversion temperature optionally being less than a thermally activated transition temperature that thermally converts the primary salt to the superionic conducting salt in an absence of the impacting the primary salt, and the superionic conducting salt including a superionic conductive phase in a solid state at less than the thermally activated transition temperature.

Patent Description

Today’s batteries contain flammable, toxic, liquid electrolytes.  Therefore, safer all-solid-state batteries are a current research goal. This requires solid-electrolyte materials with high ionic mobilities, high chemical and electrochemical stabilities, and good formability. The status-quo solid-electrolyte materials have various shortcomings.  NIST has developed a novel solid superionic conductor material to satisfy the current lack of suitable electrolytes for incorporation into next-generation all-solid-state energy devices. 

These materials combine Li+, Na+, or other cations with large polyhedral borate and/or carbaborate anions to form a new class of ionic salt compounds that can exhibit superionic conductivities in their disordered salt phases.  Using treatment strategies that involve particle-size reduction and compound mixing, NIST is able to create modified materials that remain in their superionic state at all temperatures.  They can be used as fast-ion solid electrolytes in all-solid-state batteries.  They possess favorable electrochemical and thermal stability while also displaying relatively high ionic conductivities at technically relevant device temperatures.  These new materials could be gamechangers.

Features

Simple and easy to process.

Created January 30, 2021, Updated February 11, 2021