Higher conductivity of non-stoichiometric lithium lanthanum zirconate ceramics made by reactive flash synthesis.

Reactive flash synthesis simplifies the processing of complex ceramics such as alumina doped lithium lanthanum zirconate. Low temperatures and short processing times obviate the loss of lithium while producing dense single-phase ceramics. Here we show the synthesis of non-stoichiometric compositions of this ceramic which increases the ionic conductivity by a factor of more than three. The non-stoichiometry refers to non-equilibrium lithium/lanthanum ratio, and to the addition of boron to produce excess lithium-ion vacancies. The results open the possibility of using non-stoichiometry as a concept, and RFS as the tool, for the discovery of new compositions that enhance lithium-ion conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]