On fabrication procedures of Li-ion conducting garnets

Ceramic oxides exhibiting high lithium-ion mobility at room temperature receive broad attention as candidate electrolytes for lithium batteries. Lithium-stuffed garnets from the Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 group seem to be especially promising because of their high ionic conductivity at room temperature and their electrochemical stability. In this work, we discuss factors that affect formation of the garnet in its bulk form or in the form of thick and thin films. We demonstrate that zinc oxide can be applied as a sintering aid that facilitate the formation of the highly conducting cubic Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 garnet phase in a single-step sintering procedure. Based on our experience with the single-step sintering experiments, we successfully fabricated a thick-film membrane consisting of a garnet solid electrolyte using the tape casting technique. In order to reduce the thickness of the electrolyte even further we investigated the fabrication of a thin-film Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 electrolyte by means of the pulsed laser deposition technique.